The Defender-Lookalike Ineos Grenadier is not only inheriting the Land Rover’s off-roader, it is driving even more into the future than we would have ever thought possible: The off-road vehicle is to have a hydrogen fuel cell drive as an option.
Hardcore fans of the Land Rover Defender will never understand why its successor couldn’t be a really rough off-roader. Your pain is alleviated, however, because the Ineos Grenadier, who is currently on the last legs of series production, can be considered a true, if in fact not a legitimate successor.
Now, its manufacturer Ineos Automotive has announced hydrogen fuel cells for the Grenadier as an environmentally friendly drive solution for future versions. The concept vehicle will use Hyundai’s fuel cell technology for this purpose. The test phase will begin at the end of 2022.
The British chemical giant Ineos, to which Ineos Automotive belongs, is Europe’s largest operator of electrolysis systems for the production of hydrogen. Now the company has announced that it will invest two billion euros more – twice as much as before – in its production. Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe has now announced a multimedia campaign and participation in the climate conference “UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)” in Glasgow. Ineos now wants to play a pioneering role in the hydrogen economy. Ratcliffe appeals to the British government to develop the infrastructure for hydrogen in good time.
Ineos wants to give priority to the production of green hydrogen with renewable energy, but is also investing in the production of blue hydrogen, provided the carbon dioxide produced can be safely stored underground. Today the company already produces 400,000 tons of hydrogen annually. This corresponds roughly to the energy content of 2.5 billion liters of diesel.
Ratcliffe sees battery electric cars as suitable for short journeys or city traffic. But for heavy loads and longer trips, hydrogen is the energy carrier of the future. The Briton sees the importance of hydrogen in living space heating even more than in the automotive sector. Natural gas can be replaced or supplemented by hydrogen.