The story of the British rich man making a car: using a BMW engine, producing it in a Mercedes-Benz factory and benchmarking it with Land Rover.

what would you do if you found that your beloved car was stopped by the car factory? Why don't you go and find a used car? British billionaire and Land Rover Defender fan Radcliffe has a more "bold" answer: I'll build one myself! We should not only build it ourselves, but also integrate the most powerful resources in the automobile industry: BMW for the engine, Magna for the chassis research and development, and Mercedes for the production line. When the car is built, it will be specially compared with the new car of the car factory. The east wind blows and drums beat, who is afraid of who in this world?

it's not a joke, it's a real story.

In early July, Daimler Group announced that it would close one of its vehicle factories in France and sell it. A few days later, INEOS Automotive, a British automobile manufacturer, expressed its intention to buy the factory as the production base of its new four-wheel drive off-road vehicle Grenadier (meaning grenadier), and the two sides have already started in-depth negotiations on this. Previously, Ineos has already finalized cooperation with automotive giants such as BMW Group and Magna Group to provide powertrain and R&D services for new cars.

although this INEOS Automotive is unknown in the automobile industry, behind it is a powerful chemical enterprise-ineos group. What's even more amazing is that the reason why INEOS Group builds cars across the border is only because its boss, British billionaire Jim Ra? Tcliffe) is a veteran Land Rover Defender fan, but Land Rover decided to stop production of its beloved classic Defender. So in 217, Ineos announced that it would produce a four-wheel drive off-road vehicle, and bluntly said that it would fill the market gap left by Land Rover after it stopped production of the classic defender. The name of the new car comes from a bar that Ratcliffe often goes to.

When talking about his plan to build a car, Ratcliffe made no secret of his love for the classic Land Rover Defender, and also intentionally or unintentionally revealed his disapproval of Land Rover's brand-new Defender. For example, Ratcliffe has always called his new car an "uncompromising" four-wheel drive off-road vehicle, which seems to imply that Land Rover's new defender is a compromise to market trends and emission regulations.

After announcing the plan to build a car, Ratcliffe made frequent moves. In March 219, BMW Group announced that it had won a large order for Ineos engines, which will supply tens of thousands of six-cylinder twin-turbo engines to the latter; In December of the same year, Ineos announced that it had reached a cooperation with Magna Group, which provided it with chassis, suspension and vehicle development services. This high-profile purchase of Mercedes-Benz's vehicle factory is another step towards realizing the dream of building a car with the support of all parties.

Ineos originally hoped to build factories and cars in Britain. However, under the combined influence of the slow development of the industry and the impact of the epidemic in Europe, many multinational automobile manufacturers are ready to close their factories and shrink their fronts, which also gives Radcliffe a chance to "catch the leak". After all, if we can buy an automobile factory with a complete set of production equipment and supporting facilities, and then take the opportunity to recruit these workers who would otherwise be unemployed, it will bring obvious improvement to Ineos' car-making strength.

interestingly, the factory to be sold by Mercedes-Benz was originally used to produce its small and flexible smart models, but Ineos is going to produce tough and tough pure off-road vehicles in the same factory after taking over. I wonder how much the new owner of the factory will transform the production line at that time. In fact, it is more suitable for Ineos to take over a Nissan factory in Spain. This factory is the production base of Nissan Navarra pickup truck and has a ready-made four-wheel drive off-road vehicle production line. In this regard, Ineos said that Nissan's factory is also under consideration, but Mercedes-Benz's factory is still its first choice.

At present, Ineos has not announced the price of Grenadier, but the British media estimated that its starting price should be around $5,, which is equivalent to the new Land Rover Defender. No wonder, after all, the goal of Radcliffe's cross-border car building is to fight for breath: don't you build the car I want? Ok, I'll do it myself!

well, the world of the rich is like this, simple and boring.