'WE'RE A STUBBORN LOT'
Autocar UK|June 19, 2024
Ineos Automotive is that rare start-up: a success. CEO Lynn Calder tells Mark Tisshaw about the learning curve, luck and sheer bloody-mindedness that made it all happen
Mark Tisshaw
'WE'RE A STUBBORN LOT'

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.

Bu hikaye Autocar UK dergisinin June 19, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye Autocar UK dergisinin June 19, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

AUTOCAR UK DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
The venomous nature of the Cobra
Autocar UK

The venomous nature of the Cobra

Last week, Matt Prior drove a totally new kind of AC Cobra. This is a car with one of the strongest allures of all - but also an incredibly complex and controversial history.

time-read
3 dak  |
October 23, 2024
SKODA KAMIQ
Autocar UK

SKODA KAMIQ

A long getting-to-know-you trip to Spain reveals all

time-read
2 dak  |
October 23, 2024
THE SEVEN-YEAR TITCH
Autocar UK

THE SEVEN-YEAR TITCH

Outgoing baby Jag is plush, practical and now eminently affordable

time-read
2 dak  |
October 23, 2024
'Our time has come'
Autocar UK

'Our time has come'

Honda may be late to the EV party, but a barrage of bold new battery-powered cars is on the way. JAMES ATTWOOD speaks to boss Toshihiro Mibe at its R&D base to find out what's in store

time-read
8 dak  |
October 23, 2024
Lion kings
Autocar UK

Lion kings

Plush, powerful four-door cars are an endangered species - and now Peugeot has called time on its latest, the 508 PSE. STEPHEN DOBIE compares it with its most significant ancestor, the 505 GTI

time-read
6 dak  |
October 23, 2024
VOLKSWAGEN GOLF
Autocar UK

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF

Wolfsburg gives the lesser-known Golf PHEV a big-impact refresh

time-read
7 dak  |
October 23, 2024
PORSCHE PANAMERA GTS
Autocar UK

PORSCHE PANAMERA GTS

Stuttgart's latest 'bahnstormer targets driver appeal over outright punch

time-read
2 dak  |
October 23, 2024
MERCEDES-AMG GT 63 PRO
Autocar UK

MERCEDES-AMG GT 63 PRO

Hardcore variant of V8 sports car engineered with track days in mind

time-read
3 dak  |
October 23, 2024
TESLA REVEALS ROBOTAXI
Autocar UK

TESLA REVEALS ROBOTAXI

Firm unveils Cybercab coupé and 20-seat Robovan in autonomy push

time-read
2 dak  |
October 23, 2024
DACIA PLOTS AMBITIOUS EXPANDED EURO LINE-UP
Autocar UK

DACIA PLOTS AMBITIOUS EXPANDED EURO LINE-UP

Firm teases something different’ ahead of impending C-segment reveal

time-read
2 dak  |
October 23, 2024