New safari-spec Ineos Grenadier breaks cover
Need seating for nine and a roll-back canvas top? Ineos Kavango has you covered...
After 18 months spent developing a concept it originally unveiled at Festival of Speed, Ineos has confirmed that the Grenadier Game Viewer will go into full production early next year. The manufacturer reckons its show car generated ‘enormous interest’ from the sort of people who own and operate ranches and game estates across the world - i.e. the sort of people who have plenty of use for a robust off-roader that can seat nine including a gamekeeper pew beyond the front bumper.
Ineos’s boss gamely suggests that this is the ‘Grenadier coming full circle’ on the basis that the original idea for the car came to Jim Ratcliffe while on safari in Botswana. Far be it from us to quibble with that version of the origin story (or to prefer the one where it was more fully conceived in a pub), but at any rate the Game Viewer is undeniably another rung on the ladder to Grenadier greatness, and a decent reminder of just how keen Ineos is to innovate.
Indeed, while the firm is not building the Game Viewer in-house, it did go to the trouble and expense of acquiring a Botswana-based vehicle conversion specialist to do the job for it. Kavango Engineering became Ineos Kavango in 2023, and now it bears responsibility for turning the partially built long- and extra-long wheelbase Grenadiers supplied to it by the Hambach factory into safari-ready vehicles.
As you might expect, the options for customisation are plentiful, though you’d imagine every buyer wants some variant of tiered seating and the roof removed. Ineos notes that thanks to the ladder-frame chassis, no additional modifications of the Grenadier’s underpinnings are required. Moreover, in what it claims is an industry first, the Game Viewer will be supplied with a manufacturer warranty (subject to terms and conditions) and enjoy factory-backed aftersales support.
You’d imagine this is desirable for a vehicle that will spend virtually its entire life off-road - albeit at fairly modest speeds, lest your guests end up wearing a passing flamingo. Ineos reckons that the 70-strong workforce in Maun is capable of completing around 200 ground-up conversions per year; no small job when the Grenadiers turn up in Botswana with no paint, tailgates, seats (except the front), side glazing, roof skin, trims or redundant electrical features.
Much as it seemed to with previous efforts to align with a third party, the business case for the Game Viewer seems solid enough - and, of course, while Ineos doesn’t mention it, the new model feels like an additional finger in Land Rover’s eye, given the number of Defenders that have been turned into safari-watchers over the years. Ineos mentions a fledgling working relationship with the government of Botswana. With a significant commercial presence in the country, it will expect that to bear additional fruit in the coming years.
Those roof posts do not look sturdy enough
edit: Although I notice it has German plates, might be 'shopped? Or the registration of the base vehicle which was left on for ease of import, even though it might no longer be road legal in Germany.
Nevertheless a purposeful vehicle for the task involved.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Those roof posts do not look sturdy enough
BB is the plate registration for Landkreis Böblingen and precisely where I am writing this post from. I have say that the view out my window looks a little different to that, and its a fair drive to the African savanna.
BB is the plate registration for Landkreis Böblingen and precisely where I am writing this post from. I have say that the view out my window looks a little different to that, and its a fair drive to the African savanna.
https://www.iaai.com/VehicleDetail/43980585~US
Nevertheless a purposeful vehicle for the task involved.
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