Heavy BEV powertrain ‘defeats the purpose’, leaving fuel-cell as the best electric option for INEOS Grenadier
INEOS has no plans to offer a battery-electric version of its new 2022 INEOS Grenadier in the foreseeable future, arguing that the heavy weight of a battery pack “defeats the purpose” of the 4×4 off-roader.
The British company, which this week began rolling out the first examples of the 2022 INEOS Grenadier ahead of full-scale production in July and first Australian deliveries soon after, has previously announced that it will run a pilot program with a hydrogen fuel-cell electric (FCEV) powertrain in the new hard-core wagon.
But asked this week about a battery-electric version, which rivals such as Land Rover will begin offering from 2024, INEOS Automotive chief executive Dirk Heilmann said FCEV was the only form of electrification currently under consideration for the Grenadier.
According to Heilman, current BEV powertrains are not up to the job for what INEOS has in mind, deep in the bush and far from the nearest 800V charger, and the weight kills the payload as well.
“Hydrogen is an electric vehicle,” he told carsales.
“When it comes to battery-electric, if you want to keep the capability of the Grenadier, you’re talking 700 kilos of battery pack and that eats into your payload and that defeats the purpose.
“Even the [Jaguar] I-PACE battery pack is 750kg.
“You need a very good (battery) pack to have the pulling power because it drains the battery like there’s no tomorrow.”
Heilman understands that FCEVs have plenty of issues to overcome, including a scarcity of refuelling points, a lack of customer enthusiasm and that commercially available systems are few and expensive.
“No idea what an FCEV would cost now, because we’re not looking at it now,” Heilmann admitted.
“For the next two to three years you will see where this is going because it’s all about who is adapting it and who is using it.
“We will be integrating a system from somebody and it’s all about who is the one who will go into the mass market first.
“At the end of the day, we are years away from it – the earliest I would guess, and it is a guess, would be 2027 – and we just need to keep our eyes on the technology.”
That leaves the infrastructure issue.
“From a technology standpoint it is there, but the infrastructure isn’t,” Heilmann said.
“Consumer impetus, yes and no, but it is something to be evaluated over the next two to three years.
“The consumer will get on the bandwagon once the infrastructure is there and the security is there, because range envy still persists with hydrogen.
“Italy has one refuelling station and the UK has seven. France is similar. It’s a hard sell.”
There’s only a handful of public hydrogen refuelling stations in Australia too, including a new site at Toyota’s former Altona manufacturing plant in Melbourne’s west.
But the fact that Toyota is backing FCEV technology, and has talked up the possibility of a hydrogen-powered version of the new Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, keeps it on the table as a prospect for Australia.
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Keyword: No INEOS Grenadier EV on the horizon