Designing and engineering a car is one thing. Manufacturing and selling it is quite another.
Cars are extremely costly and complicated things to produce not least because the process relies on hugely complex supply chains and the vehicles themselves must be built to meet all sorts of legislative requirements that are often different in every market.
Tesla is the only real modern example of a car maker that has been created from scratch and gone on to make a success of itself at any kind of meaningful scale.
Until now. Ineos Automotive was created over a pint in a London pub by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who lamented the demise of the old Land Rover Defender and the absence in the market of anything like it. That was in 2016. Seven years later, the first Grenadiers left the production line.
Running the company since December 2022 has been Lynn Calder, who was brought in from elsewhere in the Ineos empire to get the Grenadier over the line and into mass production. For someone who had never worked in a car company before and who was arriving at the most crucial stage of all, it was quite the baptism of fire.
Calder recalls she was quite surprised to receive the job offer in the first place. "I couldn't quite believe it," she says. Yet while her appointment outwardly seemed to come from left field, Ineos isn't a company to follow the traditional route. Calder herself also says she has had "left turns" in her career before and always had a family connection to cars.
When she was growing up, first in Fife near Edinburgh and then in Aberdeen, cars were constantly around her. She recalls her mechanic father "spending all his money on cars... He just wanted to try new things all the time so you'd come home one day and find the Volvo estate had turned into a Nissan Primera". Her first car was an A-reg Ford Fiesta that brought "freedom" in her rural location.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MG 4
An EV changes your driving style - but not to the detriment of pleasure
PEUGEOT E-208
Time with our French hatch is up. Is it good riddance or au revoir?
In the hot seat
Is the best automotive job in the world actually in miniature scale? Hot Wheels' design boss assures STEPHEN DOBIE it is
Correcting the record
Autocar invented the road test back in 1928 - or did we? KEITH JONES trawls the past to find the true starting point
Road test rebooted
As the Autocar road test forges into its second century, its brief is expanding and it's returning to a familiar place. MATT SAUNDERS explains
Cyber attack
MG is back on the international stage and now trying to return to its sports car roots. MATT SAUNDERS sees if the Cyberster EV can match up to a rival from the present and a relation from the past
KIA PICANTO
As rivals fall by the wayside, Kia's popular city car gets a makeover
MASERATI GRANTURISMO
Latest coupé in a long line of Maserati GT cars hits the UK with V6 power
PORSCHE CAYENNE GTS COUPE
New V8 model gets all the goodies
TOYOTA PRIUS
Back by popular demand with a cool new look and greater driver appeal