Huw Williams

I do feel that I’ve had a lucky escape through cancelling the Grenadier and ordering the Ranger. I have two now, a 2014 and the new one that is a month old and has a thousand miles on the clock. The Wildtrak saved me fully £30,000 compared with the Grenadier so-called commercial and has full time 4wd, superb performance and refinement, far better second row legroom and comfort, superior cargo area with unlimited height, and fuel economy from its 200hp ten. speed automatic that has exceeded 35mpg so far including towing 3.5 tons for 30 miles. Best over more than 100 miles of 42mpg. The driving experience is far superior with electric power steering that is accurate and as good as a car’s and a great driving position and comfort. The infotainment system is also superb. Drawback is that it is a longer vehicle than Grenadier at 129” wheelbase compared to 119, but it still has a better turning circle. It may not perform as well in the most extreme of conditions but it is a known entity to me, having run Rangers since 2007 when I gave up my 22 year old LR 110 Hi-Cap having it worn out and no new model on the horizon from LR. For the vast majority of new vehicle buyers of business off-road vehicles, including farmers, vets, surveyors, engineers, tree surgeons, builders and utility companies, the modern pickup truck has long taken over from the old Land Rover. The Grenadier will not make significant inroads into these sectors because none of their models, including the Quartermaster pickup, qualifies for business tax reliefs and frankly a fleet buyer can buy three Ranger Wildtrak’s for the price of two Grenadiers and still have change to buy a Dacia Duster outright for lighter duties. That surely puts the Grenadier’s prospects into perspective.

They certainly won’t sell many in the UK but not because they don’t want to but because very few will buy the so-called commercials and there is a limit of 1700 annually of the car versions, the so-called Belstaff models. The factory is constrained to the same proportions out of a total of a maximum of 30,000 vehicles by the EU emissions/taxation laws and the classification of N1 commercials is very similar throughout the EU. Also, as you say, the four door pickup will suffer the same constraints and the UK is the biggest market in Europe for such vehicles, for instance taking 20,000 Ford Rangers annually out of 60,000 total European sales. Ineos has very modest sales targets which I doubt they will get anywhere near hitting after the current initial flurry of interest subsides and considering that nearly two thirds of factory output potential just must be of commercial vehicles. I know it is the DVLA or other country’s similar registration classification that matters for this, but it most certainly not what matters to the great majority of potential N1 commercial customers.

I’m afraid I’ve gone and cancelled the Grenadier due to the tax situation. I’ve ordered a Ranger Wildtrak which is coming in as a stock order next month with the electric bed cover and tow pack with the 205hp engine. It costs a ridiculous, for a pickup, £42,000 but with the VAT situation has an initial saving of fully £25,000 compared to the ‘commercial [that’s not] Grenadier. There are ongoing savings as well of course, such as offsetting against income tax in my ‘pool’ of depreciating vehicles. I don’t think many people realise the implications of EU regulations on the total Grenadier factory output. Since the commercials do not qualify as such for tax purposes in large swathes of countries, they will struggle to sell these. However the fleet pollution tax concessions the factory gets as a small specialist producer limits the factory to a total of 30,000 vehicles annually. Only 8500 of these are allowed to be ‘cars’ with 21500 sales therefore needing to be commercial vehicles. There is very little chance of them selling more than a fraction of those 21500 vehicles that are speed limited, have no or compromised second row seats and panelled sides for no cost saving to lifestyle rich buyers. What is the proportion of Defender commercial sales? I reckon less than 5% of total sales and yet they actually do qualify for VAT reclaiming . For perspective, the Ford Ranger sells 60,000 units in Europe alone with 20,000 sold in the UK [which is included in the 60k figure] Worldwide sales of the old model exceeded 300,000 last year and are likely to exceed 400,000 this year with only supply limiting further sales. If I wanted a vehicle not on unsold stock order, including any and all v6 variants, the expected wait to uk delivery is a year or more. Over 90% are VAT qualifying with only the Rapter sports variant not being so due to its sub 1000kg payload. In conclusion, with the Grenadier pricing situation as it is, the non commercial Defender 110, at around £65k to £70k is a far far better prospect as an all terrain capable car than the Grenadier. The majority of commercial/dual purpose customers will continue to choose pickup trucks.

The road fund license for commercial vehicles is £320. This is the only saving from getting the commercial version but it comes with a 10mph speed limit penalty on most roads that aren’t limited to a speed below 40 anyway. It is disingenuous at best of Ineos to still claim on their website that these are ‘certified as commercial vehicles’ when that is a half truth at best and units to state that for the important part for all VAT registered businesses, that it is NOT a commercial vehicle as far as HMRC are concerned. Customers are currently buying, in good faith, expecting to reclaim the VAT and get some additional tax relief as it is a cost against their businesses. Instead they will be lumbered with 20% more than they bargained for in purchase price and possibly a massive benefit in kind bill for drivers. It is rather more serious than Ineos make out, certainly for UK dealers, because they can only sell a maximum of 1700 non commercials and commercial sales will be rare once their true status is well known. Currently, in my view, they are in danger of being liable to mis-selling their product by omission of critical facts.

Massive issue for me. Ineos continue to disingenuously claim on their web site that the five seat [with panel side] and the van are ‘certified as commercial vehicles’. I have a five seater on order ‘built on purpose’ to do the same sort of work as my existing Ford Ranger which carries mainly tools in the back seat area with the capability of very occasionally carrying an extra passenger or two [after making room for them]. Unfortunately it seems that I will need to cancel my Grenadier order and get another Ford Ranger. I am not particularly upset by this because it always troubled me as to how they got certified with less than 1000kgs payload. It spells far more trouble to Ineos though, even with their double cab pickup [because it too will need to have a limited load capacity to keep below 3.5 tons gross. The big issue here is that UK sales are limited to 6000 with only about 1700 of those being passenger class vehicles. 4300 annual sales must be commercial vehicles if they are to hit their sales limit. If 90% of sales are fully glazed cars then only less than 1900 total annual sales will be allowed in the UK. This really does put the kibosh on Grenadier UK until they offer zero emission vehicles. If they survive that long as a company. I have plenty of time before mine is due to be built but it does look like it will be a cancellation of my anticipated five seat commercial. Ineos dealers must be apoplectic about this situation as must those that have signed a contract and taken delivery of a vehicle which they believed was ‘certified as a commercial vehicle’ at face value. It increasingly looks like my eventual vehicle will be another Ford Ranger, not a Grenadier. In truth it probably suits me better anyway.