Production of the Grenadier was suspended for four months late last year after seat supplier Recaro Automotive went into liquidation – having given Ineos only a few weeks’ notice, noted Calder.
The German firm has since been rescued by Italian supplier Proma Group and full Grenadier production speed will be achieved again in May.
Despite the hiatus, Ineos grew Grenadier sales by 40% last year as it entered its 50th worldwide market. One of them is China, by far the world’s largest.
Total capacity at Hambach could be up to 50,000 or so cars per year with all-shift working, but Ineos is currently considered a small-volume manufacturer, which “means we get certain derogations in terms of mandates for emissions reduction over time, which shelters us for the moment,” said Calder.
Manufacturers selling fewer than 2500 cars or vans a year are exempted from the UK’s ZEV mandate requirements, but Calder added that “we don’t want to be a small-volume manufacturer. That’s not the ambition and we’re not staying under a limit in order to achieve that.
“We will bust the limit of sales the very first second we can. And then we will have to have a different line-up of vehicles – or, frankly, focus on different markets.”
