4x4 start-up’s new boss said she refused to ship cars Down Under after small quality issue was identified
INEOS CEO Lynn Calder has revealed it was a production quality issue that impacted the first batch of INEOS Grenadier Station Wagons in Australia.
After several previous production delays, first Australian deliveries of the rugged new off-roader were scheduled to begin in April this year, but in the end only 25 INEOS Grenadiers were delivered, despite the company taking hundreds of deposits.
Now we can reveal that the reason for the smaller batch, which has pushed back delivery times for many Aussie buyers by several months, was a delivery issue at the Grenadier’s Hambach factory in northern-eastern France.
Speaking to carsales, Calder said an issue was identified during the international media launch of the Grenadier in Scotland, where a faulty driver’s door handle was caused by a part that was a fraction of a millimetre out of specification. Once the problem was identified, the INEOS boss said she personally stopped deliveries Down Under.
“We’ve been at great pains to make sure that the quality is right and have been working really hard to get it absolutely as best as we can possibly get it,” she said.
“It really shows you, the smallest of components can let you down,” said Calder, who added that she appreciated the patience of affected Australians while the issue was addressed.
More frustrating for Calder and her team was that the issue concerned a faulty off-the-shelf part that costs almost nothing to purchase. It’s understood that INEOS was then forced to manufacture a bespoke replacement part at scale from scratch in order to fix the sticking issue – hence the time needed to design and create unique tooling to mass-produce the rectified component.
Calder didn’t confirm how long Grenadier customers would now have to wait, but suggested that Australian delivery times would shorten soon.
“We’ve got cars in Australia now and the pipeline will start to move quite quickly,” said the INEOS CEO.
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Keyword: INEOS Grenadier delays fixed, says global boss