Strong start Down Under for Ineos

INEOS delivered the first Grenadier models to Australian customers in June this year, with consistent month-on-month growth since and a strong end to 2023, but this is only the beginning for the British off-roader specialist.

GoAuto sat down with Ineos head of APAC region Justin Hocevar to discuss the brand’s Australian success so far, incoming model options – including a cab-chassis version of the upcoming Quartermaster ute – and its fleet aspirations into the future.

Mr Hocevar was quick to point out that despite kicking things off mid-year, Ineos’ end-of-year result will put it ahead of other established brands within the competitive 4x4 segment. 

“We’ve really got four, call it five months of delivery, so if I include that and even from an absolute number, we’ve already passed some pretty major nameplates,” he said.

Among the four-wheel drive models the Grenadier has outsold are the Land Rover Discovery (465 units year to date) and Mercedes-Benz G-Class (355 units). In monthly average terms it is also proving more popular than Jeep’s Wrangler and Grand Cherokee that respectively have 1015 and 1171 deliveries to their names YTD and on a similar run-rate to the SsangYong Rexton.

“So we’re a bit over 800 now and by the end of December we'll be at just over 900 sales, but if I took New Zealand out we’d be low 800,” added Mr Hocevar.

“They’re good numbers and that’s with just the wagon,” said Mr Hocevar, suggesting Ineos is expecting further growth when the Quartermaster ute arrives in 2024.

Ineos has also worked to bring its lead times down, now hovering around the six-month mark, after early customers were left waiting for up to a year. 

When asked if Ineos plans to reduce its wait times further, Mr Hocevar hinted at lead times remaining fixed, but did confirm it would establish a stock buffer to better support its network.

“Given the global demand still remains really high, and there's some other markets that we’re keen to open up, we're going to probably focus heavily on making sure that we get a good percentage of our order cover quite high,” he said.

“We’d rather be selling from orders but to augment that just enough, and to give our network some opportunities, we will order some stock to help them out.”

Having already delivered Grenadier units to mining customers in Australia and the Mt Buller Resort in Victoria, Mr Hocevar confirmed fleet interest is strong but not a key focus for Ineos just yet. 

“It's early days for us, particularly here in Australia and New Zealand, because we have been so focused on getting customer cars out the door,” Mr Hocevar said.

“During the prototype phase, we went to some fleet-oriented shows, and we went to a mining Expo in South Australia, for example.

“That one was particularly focused on the exploration side of mining because that’s where, particularly from a wagon point of view, they can lock all of their kit up and keep it away from dust.

“We haven’t really accessed fleets in earnest yet, but there is lot of interest.”

In overseas markets the Grenadier models are being used in a range of fleet applications, Mr Hocevar explained, particularly emergency service functions. 

“In that space already in Europe there's a mountain rescue mob in Switzerland, there's a border defence group in Poland that has taken a large order, in Scotland there was a Coast Guard service,” he said.

When discussing fleet applications for emergency services, utilities and municipal sectors in Australia, Mr Hocevar confirmed that Ineos is first focusing on establishing strong support across its parts and service areas. 

“They’re absolutely interested, we just haven't had a go and, look, part of that is because we really want to be able to walk before we run in this space,” he said.

“We don't want to go charging into it. We've only recently got our Melbourne warehouse up and going, we've been getting containers of parts in and stocking it up, pushing parts out to the network. 

“Once that starts to bed down, and we've got all that IP established in the network, then it will free up the resources for us, as a small player, to focus on fleet business out there.”

The black sheep of the range, but one that offers a strong commercial business case for fleet and individual buyers, is the two-seat utility wagon which has so far only represented a small proportion of total sales. 

“It's only a single digit percentage of sales so far and I would say that the two most prominent customers that we've been selling them to are payload hungry caravanners and also overlander kind of tourers,” Mr Hocevar said.

Another promising model is the Quartermaster dual-cab ute, which will be offered as a cab-chassis allowing further customisation for trade and fleet customers. 

“With the start of production of the dual-cab, the Quartermaster, which began only a bit over a week ago, that’s going to be a really important vehicle for this market,” Mr Hocevar said.

“We'll bring it in as a cab-chassis and obviously that gives you a slightly lower kerb weight, which is going to help out from a payload point of view.

“We've already lined up a supplier for a steel or alloy tray and they’re an established player with national distribution, and they already supply to other OEMs.”