The INEOS Grenadier, a vanity project to keep the company’s billionaire Brextremist founder busy screwing over anyone who stands in his way, is moving production from Britain to Europe. The only reality in this post-Brexit fantasy land was that the Grenadier was never going to be made in England. While Ratcliffe supported Brexit, he quietly moved to Monaco. While Ratcliffe informed a fawning motoring media that the Ineos Grenadier would be made in Britain, he was finalizing plans to take over an old Mercedes production facility nestled in the heart of Europe. The Guardian goes into much more detail.
The Ineos Grenadier is a copy-paste of the last generation Land Rover Defender. If a Chinese firm did what Ineos has done with the Grenadier then the British Motoring Press would almost certainly turn their noses up at the Chinese. Because the Grenadier is British by association, owned by a British billionaire much of the British Motoring press are simply fawning over Jim Ratcliffe’s arse in the hope of getting an exclusive first drive.
The real journalism is being done in the comments sections of the established British motoring press. We here at DCB smelt a rat from the very inception of this vanity project. Nothing seemed to gel, information was thin on the ground. This isn’t surprising considering the Ineos Automotive Head of PR was schooled at Jaguar Land Rover. Jaguar Land Rover PR and its acolytes are a curse on the whole of humanity.
But at the end of the day, Ratcliffe can do whatever the fuck he wants, he is a billionaire after all. And he made his wealth by being shrewd and screwing people over in the same manner he is displaying with the Grenadier vanity project. My guess is that Ratcliffe lobbied the government for public funds, and when rebuffed simply moved the entire operation to Europe. The economy-of-scale argument being touted by Ineos Automotive is total bullshit.
No one in their right mind would seriously ever consider voting for Brexit. The British public did. Europe is the UK’s biggest trading partner. While the EU isn’t perfect, neither is shooting yourself in the foot and that’s what those who voted for Brexit did. They doomed an entire nation. But the vote has to be respected. If that’s what the British public want then let Brexit burn the whole damn place down. The Ineos Grenadier is symptomatic of everything wrong with Brexit and it’s Billionaire supporters.
