Can you give me any any examples of where it's been tricky every shape that's created on the
front of the rear of the vehicle must respect the approach and the departure angle otherwise as you
quite like you said people will not see this as fit for function essentially the grenadiers base
is going to be in wales why whales well we wanted to be able to create our own identity
what we wanted to do was have our own facility we didn't want to take somebody else's we wanted to
create something specific oliver it's great to see you what are the the really big challenges
to conquer from your point of view to have the digital uh engineering done but now you have to
actually put it in the physical world and this is ahead of us dirk thank you very much for finding
some time to speak to me i know you're a very busy man so what what stage are we at now coming out of
kobe coming out of that crisis we have lost some time here and we need to make it up we
are not jeopardizing the quality so we need to find ways of testing very hard very rigorously
what is that photo on the other side of you that's actually a picture of
the winter testing that is the grenadier this is a granular prototype running in sweden yes when will
the world get to see it i think it's a matter of weeks now you can look forward to it soon
a little over a year ago no one had even heard of the grenadier now everyone in the off-road world
is talking about it and one thing has become very clear as potential drivers users owners
of this extraordinary 4x4 you are hungry for engineering and design detail well no problem
welcome back to building the grenadier this episode we've invited some serious off-roaders
to take an exclusive first look at a very special grenadier prototype
chassis001 all right fellas i want you to take a look at something
wow that's pretty cool
i know you want to get underneath
look at that absolutely i've always been a lover of what i call the iconic four by fours and this
to me is an iconic 4x4 for sure the size the way it's laid out the position of the engine
everything i've looked at so far it's going to be a workhorse can't wait to get older that's nice
i love this for a split door like this there's a really brilliant wide opening area to
load and offload really heavy kit i can imagine putting the pallet in there with
all you learn for the machines no problem at all good departure angles
are actually good pro channels as well but it's quite a wide bumper but i i like that
because you can accept wind shoes as well check them out then check them out splendid
i tell you what it's going to be very hard to drag these guys away but they can take as long as they
like because the whole point of today is to hear what they think whilst the grenadier is still
a work in progress now i know it doesn't look like it is from the outside but on the inside
it's very clear that there are still a lot of engineering and design decisions
to be made although the interior itself is nearly finished and i should be able to show
you it in a few weeks time but the wait is over when it comes to the wheels and tires
following a rigorous research and development program ineos engineers chose 17-inch steel wheels
as the standard setup but as you know there's loads more prototype testing underway
so that choice can't be confirmed just yet ineos has clearly never made a tire never made a wheel
before so how how did you go about developing what is a unique bespoke package for this vehicle
so we we started the selection process more than a year ago with some tests on our first prototypes
and after the evaluation of these tests we've nominated bridgestone as a capable also a very
willing supplier the grenadier will come with tailor-made bridgestone tyres as standard ineos
believes bridgestone is the perfect tire partner the company has nearly a century of experience
plus the necessary global network to support a 4x4 built for the world's most remote places
so tire options there will be for for people who who want something more aggressive there will be
an option for a bf good rich tire the standard tyre is the one that you andy at bridgestone is
developing which is this now this is this is a demo tire because you walk up and go it's a
little bit smaller but it demonstrates actually the tread pattern so you're you're saying that
you've got a a tie you've already developed it's been proven it's been tested but you're then kind
of up specking it specifically for the grenadier absolutely so we um we've changed the compound
uh initially so that it's got better off-road performance particularly in the snow and also
we've changed the construction slightly to make it um more tuned and this particularly helps with
the steering in laden and fully laden conditions with the trailer lots of people when buying cars
is going kind of perception isn't there that you know standard means second best that's not the
case here is it absolutely not no so we've worked really hard with the grenadier team to make sure
that what is offered to uh the standard fitment is absolutely what is required for the vast majority
of people running the grenadiers so the package that we've put together with the wheel and the
tyre it's suitable it's snowflake marked so it performs as well in the snow as it does in the mud
um and it is great on-road capability as well so let's let's just focus on the on the rims from
a materials point of view is the reason you've gone for steel as the standard as obvious as you
might expect that it's incredibly robust and you can beat it with a hammer if you bend it
it has to be robust you know for a carb also dribble and and steel wheels would be perfect for
you know for use in winter and also for hard hot conditions from a sizing point of view
you've gone for 17 inch and 18 inch diameter rims why not 16. in terms of brakes you know we
had to respect a specific package to perform as expected and clearly the 16 didn't fit
you know for our brake system so that's why we didn't go through 16 inches wheel options
will be larger 18-inch steels or unique alloys in both sizes all fitted with the bridgestone tyres
all right what's been your your kind of general feeling it's just like ticking boxes good engine
reliability tech automatic gearbox reliability tech transmission it's all there all the axles the
way the body's built put together the big doors at the back it's all there you see it and you
know on all the social media posts the previous videos we've you know you've seen all of that
we've all watched them but actually to come here and see it and to measure up against what we were
expecting it's very much a very exciting project and i can't wait to see this thing out on the road
when you're trying to make a vehicle like this the ultimate off-roader that's going to be used in
incredibly varied conditions in the automotive world that's a that's a hell of a thing to try
and create a vehicle that's capable of of doing all that do you get the sense this is a compromise
no this is the vehicle you want for the next 20 years you're just trying to make your vehicle as
reliable as it is because there's nothing else out there at the moment to you know replace it i keep
utilizing older and older vehicles because there's nothing there that i feel
can replace what i've got at the moment and i'm coming to have a look at this
it's looking pretty good to be honest it's nice that standard is on steels though
car manufacturers constantly are pushing alloys to you steel wheels fantastic it does what it says on
the tin that's what a lot of people are going to want out of this how many of you have bashed out
a bent steel wheel with a big hammer yeah sitting there with a slash sledgehammer and smashing it
back on putting it back straight oh yeah it's a little bit buckled i'll be all right blow
it up off you go again but it works doesn't it it works everything and it gets you home
exactly now we'll always get you home listen guys i mean a huge thank you from all of us
there'll be more chances to get involved in the future so keep an eye out and it could be you
that's it for now join me for the next episode of building the grenadier
so things are really ramping up now in this episode
i want to take you behind the scenes of the new prototype production line in austria
and a first look inside the factory where your grenadier will be built
after more than a year testing early development vehicles they call the two a's the grenadier
project has reached a major milestone ineos automotive's engineering partner in austria
is now building a fleet of much more advanced next generation prototypes you guessed it
the two bees hans peter pessler is the engineer in charge we have around about 250 engineers working
on this project so everybody is pushing forward very hard because it's a big challenge you've got
loads of experience in the automotive industry building cars for all kinds of big companies
what have been the real challenges that grenadier has thrown at you the first challenge was to
understand what ineos wants to have so to get their ideas into the paper into this into the
sketches into the computer and then finally into this card we are very happy that we have these
two a vehicles right now and the next big phase is the 2p and how many around about let's say 80 plus
welcome to the grenadiers first small scale production line it's been created not just to
build the limited run of new prototypes but also to test and perfect every stage of the process
from start to finish experience gained here is helping the team plan the path to mass production
each grenadier is built from around 350 individual panels a complex 3d jigsaw held together by glue
and weld the doors and closures are aluminium the rest of the body is galvanized steel
the shells are protected with four coats of paint applied in a seven
stage process most will be white black or silver a few will have contrasting roofs
all the chassis are powder coated white to help detect cracks during testing
axles and powertrains are supplied pre-assembled the majority left-hand drive
it takes just over a month to build each prototype from scratch but there are eight vehicles in build
at any one time when they leave here these 2b prototypes will be put through extensive
safety and performance testing some are destined for high-tech automotive science
laboratories others will be shipped around the world to see if nature can break them
lessons will be learned of course and the grenadier will continue to evolve over the
coming months yes it definitely looks the part now the engineers must prove it can get the job done
now as you may know ineos automotive has bought a manufacturing site in
hambach and it will be the home of the grenadier so i thought you might like to take a closer look
it's a massive facility one of the most advanced vehicle assembly plants anywhere in the world
thanks to the 500 million euros invested in it by mercedes-benz packed with state-of-the-art
technology it comes with a highly skilled team all trained to mercedes exacting standards
the fully fitted factory just needs repurposing and reprogramming to build grenadiers
and this is the man getting the job done obviously eric there's been a lot of discussion about where
grenadier's factory will be why did you end up in hambach we looked at several sites throughout
europe and then this was an a unique opportunity where mercedes had a change of strategy
that coincided with us looking for a plant and and the the blessing here was that mercedes has
actually designed this plan for full-size suvs so very much a commercial opportunity then that
you simply couldn't turn down it it's not only commercial i would say it's it's a whole package
it's production cost but it's also also quality and and capacity so what have you actually got
to do to get the facility ready for grenadier you can say that you have maybe three categories of
work that needs to be done there we have some cells we just need to change some fixtures
we need to reprogram the robots and so on we have some cells that needs to be rearranged these are
modular cells so maybe some robot needs to be moved from one place to another and then you
have the third category where we actually tear the whole cell down and then what we do is we rebuild
it and all of that is done in the in the body shop here behind me in terms of quality control
what are you doing to make sure that grenadier is fit for purpose and is going to be built to the
reliability and quality standards that we as customers will expect we have a very advanced
well-equipped quality department here with very experienced former mercedes quality people and
the focus is really based on the workstation to make sure that before a vehicle go from one zone
to the next zone that the people that are actually working in that zone ensures that the quality is
correct they don't pass on bad quality to the next station we have four levels of quality at
the station itself at the end of that particular line before shipping out and then we also have
the audit process so from where you're sitting right now what are the big challenges coming up
so the next step is you build the two b's which are not kind of production intent material just
to make sure that the vehicle goes together you learn how to build the vehicle from that now
what we do is we go into the next phase and that's when we start to build prototypes using the actual
production process then what you do is you ramp up the production then up until the speed that you
want to that you want to run listen eric thank you very much for your time thank you appreciate it
so the most advanced grenadiers yet are now rolling off the prototype assembly line and
having taken over the existing high-tech factory in hambach ineos engineers can now focus on
refining the build process for mass production so some very big development see you next time you