LONDON: Production of Ineos' first car, the off-roader Grenadier, will be pushed back to July 2022 to make sure rigorous testing targets are met following delays last year, the company said today.

Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe's firm announced in December it would manufacture the model in Hambach, France, from late 2021 after a deal to take over a site run by Daimler, ditching plans to build a factory in Wales.

It said today that more than 130 second-phase prototypes would accumulate 1.8 million kilometres as they are tested in extreme environments around the world.

"We only have one opportunity to get this right and our quality and performance targets for the Grenadier remain paramount," said CEO of Ineos automotive Dirk Heilmann.

"We won’t cut corners."

Ratcliffe has approved the latest prototypes after they successfully underwent punishing pace in the Austrian mountains.

"We've made great strides since the very early versions of the Grenadier I drove a year ago," said Ratcliffe. “The Schöckl is a proper challenge for any 4X4. Today was a real test for our prototypes, and they came through very well. There is still work to do, but I am confident that the Grenadier will do the job we have developed it for.”

Renowned for their unforgiving and destructive hard-rock terrain, the Schöckl mountain and surroundings have been used for decades by Magna Steyr, INEOS’s engineering partner, as the ultimate test of off-road capability and durability for special purpose vehicles.

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