Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Discussing the Grenadier with Greg Clark, VP of Ineos Automotive

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Discussing the Grenadier with Greg Clark, VP of Ineos Automotive · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
0:08
Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady, and I am here with my
0:10
Speaker 1: illustrious co host. I am at Scott, I am here,
0:14
Speaker 1: And do you have you have some exciting news? I
0:17
Speaker 1: got engaged.
0:18
Speaker 2: I know. That's so awesome.
0:19
Speaker 3: Planning a honeymoon that's cool. It is so cool running
0:22
Speaker 3: away to Africa.
0:23
Speaker 1: That is exactly where honeymoon should take place, especially with
0:27
Speaker 1: you and Laura.
0:27
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
0:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll be. It'll be a lot of fun.
0:30
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to. It'll be this summer.
0:32
Speaker 2: Oh, it's so great.
0:33
Speaker 3: Well, I guess kind of fall September, Yeah, August, it'll
0:38
Speaker 3: be is August summer or is August fall for them?
0:41
Speaker 1: It's twenty first for them, it's first. Well in Africa,
0:44
Speaker 1: it's gonna be. Yeah, it's going to be springy. Yeah, exactly.
0:49
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0:53
Speaker 3: don't know, nineteen hundreds British explorer.
0:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Walk around.
0:58
Speaker 1: Actually, I think I actually have photos of you in
1:01
Speaker 1: just such a tire. In fact, I think you you
1:03
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1:07
Speaker 3: Oh, I remember that I was forced to wear those horrible.
1:10
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1:14
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1:17
Speaker 2: That's exactly what happened. I didn't even know.
1:18
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1:22
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1:25
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1:27
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1:31
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2:05
Speaker 3: So we're talking about the Ineos Grenadier, Yes, which they
2:08
Speaker 3: had one in the United States recently, still in prototype stage,
2:12
Speaker 3: and you flew out somewhere to the east coast.
2:15
Speaker 2: I did.
2:15
Speaker 1: I went to Virginia, Oh, and they were just super gracious. So,
2:21
Speaker 1: I mean, we we're obviously so enthusiastic about the idea
2:25
Speaker 1: of this car. When I saw that there was an
2:27
Speaker 1: opportunity for us to get hands on, I literally like
2:31
Speaker 1: stalked the Ineos PR team and was able to make
2:35
Speaker 1: to make it work, to make it work, and they
2:37
Speaker 1: were so gracious, and they were so excited to have
2:39
Speaker 1: us there. And I think that that is the thing
2:42
Speaker 1: about Ineos that is the most interesting to me and
2:46
Speaker 1: to us as a podcast is the fact that this
2:49
Speaker 1: vehicle and automotive company is born out of one person's
2:54
Speaker 1: passion for overlanding and land rover defenders. So the fact
2:59
Speaker 1: that at Sir Jim let's call him Jimmy, it's Jim Bob.
3:05
Speaker 1: It's just I don't know, it just sounds cooler like
3:08
Speaker 1: Sir Jim Radcliffe, which is awesome. I mean like that
3:11
Speaker 1: then and of itself, right, I mean, this guy has
3:14
Speaker 1: traveled for months around Africa on on Adventure motorcycles. He's
3:18
Speaker 1: been to both polls, he's got I know, he has
3:20
Speaker 1: a trip planned for Namibia with one of these vehicles soon,
3:25
Speaker 1: which I think will be a great initial Yeah, totally.
3:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:28
Speaker 1: Namibia is wonderful. We had such a great trip there
3:31
Speaker 1: with a Defender.
3:31
Speaker 2: I want to go back. I know right, well you'll
3:33
Speaker 2: be want to leave one out. Let me out right now.
3:38
Speaker 1: If you look at this whole idea of a squillionaire
3:42
Speaker 1: that owns a literal squillionaire that owns this massive petrochemical
3:48
Speaker 1: you know Hyder.
3:49
Speaker 3: Jim actually owns it like exactly right. He signs the
3:52
Speaker 3: checks like privately owned. Like I know a lot of
3:55
Speaker 3: people think like Tim Cook is like the richest guy
3:58
Speaker 3: in the world. Now Tim Cook's an employee, that's right, Yeah,
4:01
Speaker 3: Whereas this is where the money's that go. Whereas Sir Radcliffe, right,
4:04
Speaker 3: he can just decide one morning that I'd like to
4:07
Speaker 3: be able to continue to buy Defenders. Land Rover says no.
4:11
Speaker 3: And when you're a squillionaire, you just like pull an
4:13
Speaker 3: Elon Musk and say, Okay, no problem, I'm going to
4:16
Speaker 3: build my own. That's the same thing that happened with
4:18
Speaker 3: Elon Musk. He went to the Russians to get decommissioned
4:22
Speaker 3: ICBMs to launch stuff into space, and they said, aha,
4:25
Speaker 3: no go away. So then he just made his own He.
4:29
Speaker 1: Brushed up on some space stuff and started his own company.
4:34
Speaker 3: And I mean, of course, seen a car is probably
4:37
Speaker 3: like me putting shocks on my truck exactly.
4:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, will be the same amount of Yeah, the delta, Yeah,
4:44
Speaker 2: the delta.
4:44
Speaker 1: So when you look at the outcome of that, it's
4:48
Speaker 1: clearly someone that is very well traveled, has done a
4:51
Speaker 1: lot of remote travel by vehicle, and has a love
4:54
Speaker 1: for land rovers because if you if you look at
4:56
Speaker 1: the profile of this thing, it looks very reminiscent of
4:59
Speaker 1: a Defender. In fact, it probably even more so than reminiscent.
5:03
Speaker 1: And I think that there was there's a couple stylistic
5:06
Speaker 1: cues that if they had been left out, would it
5:09
Speaker 1: have made it look less reminiscent, like the grab handles
5:12
Speaker 1: that are in the place of the alpine windows. If
5:15
Speaker 1: some of that stuff had been left out, which I
5:17
Speaker 1: see the functional benefit, if it had been left out,
5:20
Speaker 1: it would have looked a little bit more its own machine.
5:23
Speaker 1: If you think about a g Wagon or a seventy
5:25
Speaker 1: series or a one to ten, they're all kind of
5:27
Speaker 1: the same box.
5:29
Speaker 3: To me, it looks like the Santana version of a Defender,
5:32
Speaker 3: Like it is that a Defender?
5:33
Speaker 2: No? But yes, so close.
5:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so it was interesting what you were saying
5:39
Speaker 3: that it looks, you know, since it's been compared to
5:42
Speaker 3: the Defender, and that whole history of him wanting to
5:45
Speaker 3: purchase the tooling from land Rover and land Rivers saying no,
5:48
Speaker 3: probably they didn't want to admit how horrible their tooling was. Yeah,
5:52
Speaker 3: but uh that was kind of me. I'm sorry, land Rover.
5:55
Speaker 3: It's a beautiful car, but like, let's just be honest.
5:58
Speaker 2: What's fifty year old tooling?
5:59
Speaker 3: Right, Tulian and the panel gaps of nineteen eighties British
6:02
Speaker 3: cars like yeah, yeah.
6:04
Speaker 2: Okay, let's move on.
6:05
Speaker 3: But you said it, you know, it's a bit larger,
6:07
Speaker 3: and then it is put into my mind everything I
6:09
Speaker 3: hate about the Defender, you know, the original Defender. It's
6:12
Speaker 3: too small. Like I mean, I'm not like a huge dude, Yeah,
6:16
Speaker 3: you're what six six two sixty three Yeah, but like
6:19
Speaker 3: the B pillar is like somewhere in my collar bone totally.
6:24
Speaker 2: So you know, like you.
6:25
Speaker 3: Develop this like awkward, like I'm going to drive like
6:29
Speaker 3: this wait nope, no, nope, I got to move my
6:31
Speaker 3: torso this way because the pedals actually are different than
6:34
Speaker 3: that totally.
6:35
Speaker 2: So I'm all for it. Yeah, it sounds great.
6:38
Speaker 1: And the funny thing is, and this was my experience,
6:41
Speaker 1: is you look at the vehicle, you and I know
6:44
Speaker 1: the size of a Defender, so I just kind of
6:46
Speaker 1: expected it to be the size of a Defender and
6:49
Speaker 1: it is not. That's one of the things that I
6:51
Speaker 1: can share on this podcast having seen it now in person,
6:54
Speaker 1: is it's actually bigger than a G Wagon. The front
6:57
Speaker 1: doors are very full.
7:00
Speaker 2: I mean, this is.
7:01
Speaker 1: A mid sized suv and the front doors have tons
7:05
Speaker 1: of space. They're much longer than a Defender, and then
7:08
Speaker 1: the rear doors are longer than both a Defender and
7:10
Speaker 1: a G Wagon. These it's probably one hundred and sixteen
7:14
Speaker 1: ish inch wheelbase. They don't have that spec finalized, but
7:18
Speaker 1: it looks like around that kind of wheelbase, it would
7:21
Speaker 1: easily take a third row or even cool like troop
7:24
Speaker 1: carrier style seats behind the second row. So it's a
7:27
Speaker 1: it's a big vehicle. I sat in it. They gave
7:29
Speaker 1: us the opportunity to sit inside it, which it was
7:32
Speaker 1: literally prototype zero zero one, So it's just all diagnostic
7:35
Speaker 1: equipment and stuff. There's no finished interior, so it's you
7:38
Speaker 1: can't really draw much from it other than that sense
7:42
Speaker 1: of space on the inside.
7:43
Speaker 2: And it's big.
7:44
Speaker 1: It's a really comfortable size vehicle, but it's also not
7:47
Speaker 1: the size of a Yukon or a Ford Bronco or
7:49
Speaker 1: so it's you know, it's probably going to be the
7:51
Speaker 1: size of the new Ford Bronco.
7:52
Speaker 2: Okay, I would say it's cool. Yeah.
7:55
Speaker 1: The other thing that surprised me was and is very
7:59
Speaker 1: non defend ish. If you look underneath this thing. Take
8:03
Speaker 1: a g Wagon which you and I have both owned
8:05
Speaker 1: and driven extensively, and then make it with the same
8:08
Speaker 1: more beef, yeah, make it like an F three fifty
8:11
Speaker 1: Underneath I mean the control arms and the axles and
8:14
Speaker 1: the prop shafts, and the size of the transfer case
8:18
Speaker 1: and the knuckles and the CB axles, and they are
8:21
Speaker 1: massive underneath this thing.
8:23
Speaker 2: I'm about that. Yeah.
8:24
Speaker 1: More beef, more better. Yeah. And it's weight down low too, right,
8:28
Speaker 1: So it's not an.
8:29
Speaker 3: About I mean, I know that their thing is really
8:32
Speaker 3: the NGOs, you know, eight organizations that that sort of thing,
8:37
Speaker 3: developing countries, developing worlds. And I think that's an interesting
8:41
Speaker 3: strategy to get production going because if you went and said, oh,
8:44
Speaker 3: I want to have this in Europe. Yeah, you know,
8:47
Speaker 3: it seems like there's always moving goalposts as far as
8:51
Speaker 3: internal combustion vehicles and safety standards and stuff. They're like,
8:54
Speaker 3: it's difficult, you know, Europe and then America. Our emission
8:57
Speaker 3: stuff is really really challenge, particularly for diesels. So you
9:03
Speaker 3: get the production going and go to Africa, go to
9:05
Speaker 3: go to Asia, go to the places that you know,
9:07
Speaker 3: because the seventies series is the SEVENTI has got to
9:10
Speaker 3: be gone soon, right like I.
9:11
Speaker 1: Would I would surely think so. But it's still it's
9:14
Speaker 1: the last option standing. So the g wagon is gone,
9:17
Speaker 1: the four six one other than some very austere contracts
9:22
Speaker 1: are being finalized. The defender's gone. You know, the J
9:25
Speaker 1: eight never really took off, so it's.
9:26
Speaker 3: The Defender's still here. Yeah, that's that's interesting to me because,
9:31
Speaker 3: like I have to say that if if it's price competitive,
9:34
Speaker 3: I mean, let's be honest, if they're going after the
9:36
Speaker 3: developing world, they're competing with the Toyota Lancers, anything else
9:39
Speaker 3: is going to be you know, some Chinese pickup truck
9:42
Speaker 3: or sething yep. If it's more modern, more durable, more powerful,
9:47
Speaker 3: why why wouldn't you want that? Yeah, I know we
9:49
Speaker 3: all get very nostalgic and romantic for the seventies, but
9:52
Speaker 3: as a twenty twenty one vehicle, they frankly suck.
9:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's their design standards are they're just not consistent
9:59
Speaker 1: with what's what's been accomplished in the last couple decades.
10:02
Speaker 1: With the Grenadier, you're looking at a vehicle that has
10:05
Speaker 1: been designed by Styr Pousche within the last engineering part,
10:09
Speaker 1: within the last few years to be the ultimate representation
10:13
Speaker 1: of this kind of vehicle. So it's going to be
10:15
Speaker 1: brought you the pins Gower yeah, and the g Wagon
10:18
Speaker 1: and the Halflinger.
10:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, the half Linger exactly. That's true.
10:22
Speaker 3: Hopefully this sells better than the half Flinger. And it's
10:25
Speaker 3: going to be made in France. I know, there's a
10:27
Speaker 3: little bit of hubbub with supposed to be made in Wales. Yeah,
10:30
Speaker 3: and then they did the Brexit. Yes, I mean, at
10:34
Speaker 3: least that's what I'm going to attribute it to. It
10:36
Speaker 3: has to be a big influence to that. I mean,
10:38
Speaker 3: if you just as a business to start off under duress,
10:42
Speaker 3: there's only one reason that you would willingly decide to
10:46
Speaker 3: make a car in France.
10:47
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
10:48
Speaker 1: I wonder if they're really good at that now. I
10:50
Speaker 1: wonder if they've become like the Detroit of Europe.
10:52
Speaker 2: Maybe. I don't know.
10:53
Speaker 3: Every time I go there, they're on strike for something.
10:56
Speaker 2: True.
10:56
Speaker 3: I've tried to go to the top of the Eiffel
10:57
Speaker 3: Tower twice and they're striking. It's so true. Well, sorry,
11:01
Speaker 3: French people. You know, the thing with French people is
11:03
Speaker 3: that I'm actually just jealous because they have the best
11:07
Speaker 3: like work life balance of anywhere, and that's what they say.
11:11
Speaker 3: I want it to be acceptable in America for me
11:12
Speaker 3: to just like open a bottle of wine, bottle of
11:15
Speaker 3: rose at one o'clock. Yeah, smoke a cigarette and read
11:18
Speaker 3: some kind of artsy novel like that sounds great. But
11:21
Speaker 3: I get like a big mac in Instagram here, so.
11:25
Speaker 1: I'll take away back France. Yeah, they've got to figure
11:28
Speaker 1: it out. Got to figure I think we've got to
11:29
Speaker 1: figure it out that we totally don't the French do.
11:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:32
Speaker 1: Wow, that was a little bit of a tangent. It
11:34
Speaker 1: was a good tangent, though. It's it's it's the same
11:36
Speaker 1: thing about this vehicle. It's like maintaining perspective on the
11:39
Speaker 1: fact that people are going to hate on this car
11:41
Speaker 1: in some way, which is just only their own petulance
11:44
Speaker 1: in my mind, Like it would be like hating on
11:46
Speaker 1: the French for only working thirty five hours a week
11:48
Speaker 1: and drinking rose and.
11:49
Speaker 2: Because we're jealous. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing, is it?
11:53
Speaker 1: Like this car is really neat and it's gonna do
11:56
Speaker 1: a very good job for five link front, yeah, five
12:00
Speaker 1: front and rear, and the links were massive, and it's
12:03
Speaker 1: going to have three differential locks, just like the g Wagon.
12:07
Speaker 2: So it'll have.
12:07
Speaker 3: Cent engines BMW derived yes, gasoline petrol engine yep, and
12:13
Speaker 3: then diesel. Right, there's diesel for rest of the world
12:16
Speaker 3: and for your come to the US. As of this point,
12:19
Speaker 3: it does not appear that that's going to be the case.
12:21
Speaker 3: And that's an easy thing for people to hang a
12:23
Speaker 3: hat on. I think, is like, oh, it's not going
12:25
Speaker 3: to come with the diesel. It's actually not as great
12:27
Speaker 3: as I thought. It's a really good excuse for those
12:29
Speaker 3: who are never going to buy it to have a
12:31
Speaker 3: reason that they weren't.
12:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.
12:33
Speaker 1: You know a diesel, you know, a modern gasoline with
12:36
Speaker 1: an eight speed is just these are great engine and
12:39
Speaker 1: it's a straight six I mean, we all loved our
12:42
Speaker 1: tjs with straight sixes and that four leader. Like nobody
12:45
Speaker 1: ever hated on those motors. Those were great motors. And
12:48
Speaker 1: now we've got a modern equivalent of that built by
12:51
Speaker 1: BMW to be a high performance, very fuel efficient gasoline
12:56
Speaker 1: motor with an eight speed automatic. I think it's going
12:58
Speaker 1: to be a wonderful pair.
13:00
Speaker 3: I love the eight speed they chose, the ZF eight hp.
13:03
Speaker 3: That thing is in everything from a BMW one Series
13:07
Speaker 3: to a Rolls Royce Ghost or Phantom or whatever. I mean,
13:10
Speaker 3: it's super robust, it's beefy. I mean, that's the same
13:13
Speaker 3: transmission that's in the Gladiator. That's the same transmission. It's perfect,
13:16
Speaker 3: that's in a lot of stuff. Yeah, it's hellcat perfect fit.
13:19
Speaker 2: I think. Yeah, very cool.
13:21
Speaker 1: The other thing that was surprising to me was Greg Clark,
13:25
Speaker 1: who is the senior VP for North America for ANIOS.
13:29
Speaker 1: I had a chance to interview him, and if you
13:31
Speaker 1: keep listening to the podcast, you'll hear my interview with
13:34
Speaker 1: Greg here in a few minutes. But one of the
13:35
Speaker 1: things that he brought up several times is that they
13:39
Speaker 1: built this truck for customer number one, and customer number
13:42
Speaker 1: one is James Radcliffe. Yeah, he dropped this little piece
13:46
Speaker 1: of insight a few times. He says, we had to
13:49
Speaker 1: build it for it to survive. Jim, he mentioned it
13:53
Speaker 1: a few times, which makes me think that either Jim
13:56
Speaker 1: is just really really hard on vehic, like he's very
13:59
Speaker 1: aggressive as a driver, which is possible. I have no
14:01
Speaker 1: doubt he's competent, but he may be on the aggressive
14:03
Speaker 1: side of the scale, or he's planning on taking this
14:06
Speaker 1: thing really really remote and very challenging locations and with
14:10
Speaker 1: it being built with the expectations of the owner, Like
14:14
Speaker 1: does Jerry McGovern care if the defender is capable or not?
14:18
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I doubt that that's a high
14:21
Speaker 1: priority for him, whereas James Radcliffe is like, this thing
14:24
Speaker 1: has to survive my next expedition to Madagascar.
14:27
Speaker 2: So okay, I mean that's cool. I think that's that.
14:30
Speaker 2: Let's take one to Madagascar. Let's do it.
14:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so I'll go anywhere right now, I
14:35
Speaker 1: know know anywhere we can go away escape Yeah, totally, yeah, totally.
14:39
Speaker 2: Well, what do you think of it?
14:40
Speaker 1: I mean, what's your initial thoughts and impressions on the vehicle?
14:44
Speaker 3: It looks interesting, you know. I think it is a
14:47
Speaker 3: romantic vehicle more so than anything for me I see
14:52
Speaker 3: as a market for this from a business perspective has
14:56
Speaker 3: to be the NGOs has to be maybe military's all
15:00
Speaker 3: our militaries around the world. To think that it's going
15:02
Speaker 3: to be successful here, I don't know.
15:04
Speaker 2: In what world?
15:05
Speaker 3: Am I not just going to drive a pickup truck?
15:07
Speaker 2: Yeah right, yeah, I've come to learn that. I learned
15:10
Speaker 2: that very late.
15:11
Speaker 3: If this would have come out, and this is just
15:13
Speaker 3: my personal opinion, if this would have been here five
15:15
Speaker 3: ten years ago, it would have had a lot of potential.
15:17
Speaker 3: But now, like we live in the golden age of
15:20
Speaker 3: the four wheel drive, of the overland vehicle, whatever you
15:23
Speaker 3: want to you know, deem it. So it's harder for
15:27
Speaker 3: me to get excited about these new things because what
15:30
Speaker 3: we have here is so great. We have the Bronco
15:33
Speaker 3: coming out three ninety two Wrangler if you want it,
15:35
Speaker 3: or a diesel Wrangler, or a few six Wrangler, or
15:37
Speaker 3: a hybrid Wrangler, or a small turbo diesel Wrangler, or
15:40
Speaker 3: a small turbo Wrangler.
15:41
Speaker 2: Or an electric Wrangler.
15:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and the quality of those vehicles has
15:46
Speaker 3: gone up and so is the practicality. You've seen the
15:48
Speaker 3: pickup trucks over here change. Everything's getting way more capable.
15:52
Speaker 3: So I think it's cool. I just don't think that
15:54
Speaker 3: we'll really ever see a lot of them here. I
15:57
Speaker 3: don't think there's any particular, one particular reason as to
15:59
Speaker 3: why I would rush out to buy one other than
16:02
Speaker 3: just wanting one because I think that they're really cool,
16:04
Speaker 3: and if they do actually come here, probably because I
16:07
Speaker 3: like the concept of it's James Ratcliffe's truck had to
16:10
Speaker 3: go through his thing. I think the thing that kills
16:13
Speaker 3: most cars is the design by committee. Yeah, so it's
16:17
Speaker 3: kind of cool like to see that. I hope it
16:19
Speaker 3: actually comes here, I guess is the thing I don't
16:21
Speaker 3: want to file it with the Bollinger, with the cyber truck,
16:25
Speaker 3: with the Rivan, with Lordstown Motors, with what was the
16:31
Speaker 3: one in Phoenix, Nicola, Yeah, Nicholas another one.
16:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, all there are so.
16:35
Speaker 3: Many of these new companies that are popping up and
16:38
Speaker 3: they have to get the hype up.
16:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:40
Speaker 3: You know, we were just talking about this as like
16:42
Speaker 3: the new Ford Lightning or the Electric F one fifty.
16:47
Speaker 2: Right.
16:47
Speaker 3: It's not that Ford wasn't working on that it's that
16:50
Speaker 3: unlike Rivian or Lordstown Motors or whoever these tech startups are,
16:55
Speaker 3: Ford doesn't really have to like raise capital, they don't
17:00
Speaker 3: have to raise interest.
17:01
Speaker 2: They have plants, and they have engineering plants, and.
17:03
Speaker 3: They have engineers. So it's cool to see that Magnustare
17:08
Speaker 3: is behind this because I think they bring a lot
17:11
Speaker 3: of manufacturing experience. Specifically, Magnistair is an Austrian company. For
17:16
Speaker 3: those who do not know, they make everything. They specialize
17:20
Speaker 3: in making limited production cars for OEMs. They're best known
17:24
Speaker 3: for the Mercedes g Wagon. The Toyota Supra is made there.
17:27
Speaker 3: Jaguar eyepaces made there, like the range Rover Evoke was
17:31
Speaker 3: made there for a few years, I think with the convertible.
17:33
Speaker 3: So if they have kind of like these outlier vehicles,
17:36
Speaker 3: magnus stare that is their business. So to have them
17:39
Speaker 3: on as an engineering partner, that's great. I think it's
17:42
Speaker 3: ambitious that they're going to make their own, you know,
17:44
Speaker 3: build their own automotive facility. But there's been a lot
17:47
Speaker 3: of advancements with automation and things these days, and they
17:51
Speaker 3: have actual money behind it, right, you know, if this
17:53
Speaker 3: was like some guy with an idea that was trying
17:55
Speaker 3: to raise money. I would be like, yeah, I'll believe
17:57
Speaker 3: it when.
17:58
Speaker 2: I see it.
17:58
Speaker 3: But seems really Aratcliff is behind this. Yeah, yeah, it's
18:02
Speaker 3: probably going to happen, and I wish them the best,
18:05
Speaker 3: Like I want to see these things running around. I mean,
18:07
Speaker 3: I think that these things would do fantastic in Australia.
18:10
Speaker 3: I think that they do fantastic in Africa. I think,
18:12
Speaker 3: you know, emerging world where a lot of the cars
18:15
Speaker 3: that I just mentioned for our use in the US,
18:18
Speaker 3: they still are a little bit too complicated for some places.
18:21
Speaker 2: Sure.
18:22
Speaker 3: And then they're working on a hydrogen one, which it's cool.
18:25
Speaker 1: Very interesting as opposed to electric they're going to go,
18:27
Speaker 1: which they have hydrogen divisions within any offs, so it
18:31
Speaker 1: is something that's very much within their wheelhouse and expertise.
18:34
Speaker 3: So that's what they're putting into Lewis Hamilton's engine. They're
18:37
Speaker 3: a big sponsor of the Mercedes Yeah one team.
18:41
Speaker 1: I have a slightly different view on this vehicle. If
18:44
Speaker 1: they can make it desirable, if they can make it
18:48
Speaker 1: like a g wagon where maybe they partner with like
18:51
Speaker 1: Aston Martin, or maybe they partner with Bentley, and you
18:55
Speaker 1: go at the Bentley dealership is all of these beautiful
18:58
Speaker 1: Bentley cars. Yeah, and that the same dealership is the
19:01
Speaker 1: test track, the really technical and it just appeals to
19:05
Speaker 1: this person, the same person who still buys a Rolex
19:09
Speaker 1: or an Omega. They are a fly fisherman. They like
19:13
Speaker 1: these things that are that feel or look analogue, even
19:16
Speaker 1: if they're not, and that they signal about who they are.
19:20
Speaker 1: And if they can nail that, if they can get
19:22
Speaker 1: the marketing right, and they can get the messaging right,
19:24
Speaker 1: which means don't try to make it popular, have explorers
19:29
Speaker 1: drive around the world and use this thing and make
19:31
Speaker 1: it desirable, not popular, desirable, And if they can pull
19:35
Speaker 1: that off, it is something that this guy gets it
19:38
Speaker 1: and his buddy wants to get one that's a little nicer,
19:40
Speaker 1: and then his buddy wants if you can build that
19:42
Speaker 1: into this desirability, the signaling that I'm an adventurer, I
19:46
Speaker 1: drive a Grenadier, then they're going to do fine. They're
19:49
Speaker 1: going to crush it. But if that doesn't happen, it's
19:51
Speaker 1: going to be tough.
19:52
Speaker 3: I still think their biggest market's going to be the NGOs. Yeah,
19:55
Speaker 3: there's just so many luxury SUVs in the market these days,
19:59
Speaker 3: but that's like my opinion.
20:00
Speaker 2: Man.
20:01
Speaker 1: Well, and the thing is is we really don't know. Yeah,
20:03
Speaker 1: the one thing that we do know that's very positive
20:06
Speaker 1: is exactly what you said.
20:07
Speaker 2: This is a well funded endeavor.
20:09
Speaker 1: It is being launched by a company that has a
20:12
Speaker 1: lot of success, an owner that is fully committed to
20:15
Speaker 1: seeing it.
20:15
Speaker 3: It doesn't have to answer like the board may be
20:18
Speaker 3: his cat and his dog. It's a privately owned company, right, Yeah.
20:22
Speaker 1: He just decides this is what I want to do
20:24
Speaker 1: today and it's yeah, and he does it, and he's
20:26
Speaker 1: passionate about it. You can see that he loves it.
20:28
Speaker 1: He loves the whole concept. It looks great.
20:31
Speaker 3: It looks like I know, Lanrivers said they couldn't amongst
20:34
Speaker 3: many reasons, they couldn't build a Defender because of crash
20:36
Speaker 3: test radiance and pedestrian safety, and jeez, there's this and
20:40
Speaker 3: then it's amazing Ronco and then there's the it's amazing Deer.
20:43
Speaker 1: And yeah, thanks Matt for all of those thoughts on
20:47
Speaker 1: the ANAOS. I think that it is such an exciting
20:49
Speaker 1: new vehicle. And for this next portion of the podcast,
20:53
Speaker 1: we're going to actually shift back to my time in
20:56
Speaker 1: Virginia with the vehicle, and we're going to look at
20:58
Speaker 1: an interview that I did with Greg Clark, who is
21:01
Speaker 1: the VP of North America for the Anios Automotive Group.
21:06
Speaker 1: This is going to be an exciting little discussion with
21:08
Speaker 1: him where we'll learn a little bit more about the
21:11
Speaker 1: philosophy of the company and what we should expect coming next.
21:16
Speaker 1: I am out here with Greg Clark, who is managing
21:20
Speaker 1: the operations here in the United States for the import
21:22
Speaker 1: of the Eneos Grenadier, which is an extremely exciting model
21:26
Speaker 1: for us that choose to travel back country by vehicle.
21:30
Speaker 1: The whole idea of overlanding is to explore the world,
21:33
Speaker 1: and there is no doubt in my mind that this
21:35
Speaker 1: vehicle has been designed for just that purpose. Greg, thank
21:39
Speaker 1: you so much for bringing this prototype zero zero one
21:42
Speaker 1: to us here in the United States.
21:43
Speaker 4: It's a pleasure. Thank you for coming. And yeah, thanks
21:46
Speaker 4: for your enthusiasm about it so far.
21:48
Speaker 1: Yes, we are genuinely enthusiastic about this vehicle because it
21:52
Speaker 1: looks like a homologation of all of the greats that
21:55
Speaker 1: have come before this day and the things that really
21:58
Speaker 1: worked with certain models, and then have said it's sunset
22:01
Speaker 1: with the modern age, so it's just really exciting to
22:03
Speaker 1: see body on frame, solid axles, three locking differentials, coil
22:08
Speaker 1: sprung suspension, a high quality, reliable drive train. One of
22:12
Speaker 1: the questions that I had is Sir Radcliffe, he definitely
22:16
Speaker 1: has a lot of passion behind this, behind this project.
22:21
Speaker 1: Can you speak a little bit about him as a
22:24
Speaker 1: traveler and his passion for backcountry and overland travel. I
22:28
Speaker 1: think that might set the stage for those listening.
22:30
Speaker 4: I think it's it's quite well publicized what our sponsor
22:33
Speaker 4: and founder and actually our number one customer. You know,
22:36
Speaker 4: that's to be clear here that this is a vehicle
22:39
Speaker 4: that is designed to be used and not in theory,
22:42
Speaker 4: but in practice, and that's something that the gym is
22:44
Speaker 4: definitely going to do. I think is relatively well publicized,
22:47
Speaker 4: whether it be antartic trips or whether it be trips
22:50
Speaker 4: around Africa, about exactly what it is that Sajem enjoys
22:53
Speaker 4: doing in his spare time. One thing I would like
22:55
Speaker 4: to mention is his absolute determination and focus on high performance, innovation.
23:02
Speaker 5: And just just performing at a very very high level.
23:04
Speaker 4: And whether that goes into the companies that he owns
23:08
Speaker 4: and runs, or whether the partnerships or the teams that
23:11
Speaker 4: he becomes involved with Mercedes Formula One, for example, that
23:15
Speaker 4: the Grenadier's cycling team, the America's Cup racing, and depending
23:19
Speaker 4: on where you are in the globe, those are either.
23:21
Speaker 5: Interesting or they're marginally interesting.
23:23
Speaker 4: It kind of imparts this this common thread of determination
23:27
Speaker 4: and insistence upon performance, and performance in this particular case
23:30
Speaker 4: with the Grenadier is about capability. And this is something
23:33
Speaker 4: that the gym is going to use personally, and will
23:36
Speaker 4: use in anger, and will use absolutely to its full intent.
23:40
Speaker 4: And so therefore, as customer number one, we've got to
23:43
Speaker 4: deliver on that. So that is that's kind of an
23:45
Speaker 4: overriding theme that I found in my short time with
23:47
Speaker 4: Inios has flown throughout the company, and it's something that
23:50
Speaker 4: I'm absolutely subscribed to, and we've got to make sure
23:53
Speaker 4: that it absolutely works here in North America with the Grenadier.
23:56
Speaker 1: Now, what a rare opportunity to take someone with that
24:00
Speaker 1: degree of passion and not only that, but personal capability
24:04
Speaker 1: to make a dream come true. When I think about
24:06
Speaker 1: bringing this vehicle to the United States, obviously many of
24:09
Speaker 1: the questions come up that we've seen around the diesel
24:13
Speaker 1: drive train, But the diesel drivetrain is becoming less and
24:16
Speaker 1: less critical. The reality is is that ultralocol for diesel
24:19
Speaker 1: is not available in many of the remote places of
24:22
Speaker 1: the world. However, you certainly can find petrol to put
24:24
Speaker 1: into a motorcycle, so I have actually even personally found
24:27
Speaker 1: that to be much less of a critical concern. But
24:29
Speaker 1: what would be of importance and concern would be, how
24:33
Speaker 1: do you service a vehicle like this if you were
24:35
Speaker 1: going to take it across Africa? What are your guys'
24:37
Speaker 1: thoughts around building out either a dealer infrastructure, which of
24:41
Speaker 1: course will be slow understandably, but how do you provide
24:43
Speaker 1: remote service while that's being built out.
24:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that's that's a question that definitely
24:49
Speaker 4: my colleagues responsible for Africa. Australia and New Zealand is
24:53
Speaker 4: another critical market there where you can get hundreds and
24:57
Speaker 4: hundreds of miles away from civilization, necessarily the case here
25:01
Speaker 4: in most parts of the US, but still a consideration.
25:04
Speaker 4: So in terms of servicing, well, let me start by
25:06
Speaker 4: saying selling the vehicle, and I mentioned earlier on, we're
25:09
Speaker 4: going to establish a network of dealerships and effectively working
25:13
Speaker 4: with partners that share our same values, that understand this
25:17
Speaker 4: product and understand the customer selling. It is almost the
25:20
Speaker 4: easy part. You can take somebody's money and you can
25:22
Speaker 4: actually deliver the vehicle. It's actually maintaining, supporting and nurturing
25:27
Speaker 4: that ownership experience.
25:28
Speaker 5: Over the course of time. So whether you're in North America,
25:31
Speaker 5: whether you're in Sub Saharan Africa, whether you're in Australia,
25:34
Speaker 5: we're looking first and foremost for the right partners to
25:36
Speaker 5: work with in terms of the sales and service process.
25:39
Speaker 5: And then definitely you know that there are people who
25:41
Speaker 5: are either going to use the vehicle or live with
25:44
Speaker 5: the vehicle some distance away from where they've purchased it.
25:47
Speaker 5: So providing an after sales network that is dedicated to service,
25:51
Speaker 5: or having flying doctors, flying spanners, however you call, you know,
25:55
Speaker 5: that's definitely something which is in the plans and something
25:58
Speaker 5: absolutely it might be even our founder who is in
26:01
Speaker 5: Botswana or Namibia or somewhere, and the car is designed
26:05
Speaker 5: to be used and so therefore stuff is eventually going
26:07
Speaker 5: to break because we all make mistakes out there and
26:10
Speaker 5: stuff breaks. It's just what happens, and how do we
26:13
Speaker 5: respond to that when a customer does break something.
26:15
Speaker 1: And we've actually seen that as a great solution from
26:18
Speaker 1: other manufacturers, particularly bespoke camper manufacturers. Their solution to that
26:23
Speaker 1: problem is you just you fly in the parts and
26:26
Speaker 1: the help that you need, because as this is being
26:28
Speaker 1: built out, that will take time. Totally understandable, and looking
26:31
Speaker 1: at the vehicle with it right next to me, I
26:33
Speaker 1: can see how robust it is intended to be. So
26:36
Speaker 1: it will be just those occasional accidents if you have
26:39
Speaker 1: an accident on the road, or if you have a
26:41
Speaker 1: mechanical issue due to some unforeseen circumstance, and then you
26:45
Speaker 1: just find a nice little lodge and wait until help arrives.
26:48
Speaker 4: So, but may I say one other thing, it's yeah, absolutely,
26:51
Speaker 4: we have to have the support network and the infrastructure
26:54
Speaker 4: that inspires confidence in the owner when they want to
26:56
Speaker 4: go off and into the deepest of bank words or
26:58
Speaker 4: off into the desert. From the ego though, we've got
27:00
Speaker 4: to make this vehicle the right balance of technology and simplicity, durability, capability, reliability.
27:07
Speaker 4: They're kind of the three main tenants for us. We
27:09
Speaker 4: recognize that to survive, to be relevant, and to be
27:12
Speaker 4: comfortable in this twenty first century, there are a certain
27:14
Speaker 4: amount of technology.
27:15
Speaker 5: That has to go in there. But it's keeping that
27:18
Speaker 5: to just.
27:18
Speaker 4: The bare minimum everything you need and nothing you don't,
27:21
Speaker 4: and also cutting down the number of ECUs, the things
27:23
Speaker 4: that electronically could potentially go wrong, which definitely are not
27:27
Speaker 4: that easy to service when.
27:29
Speaker 5: You're out there in the field.
27:30
Speaker 4: And that really is critical for us and is clearly
27:34
Speaker 4: a challenge as we manage that balance between technology and simplicity.
27:38
Speaker 4: But we'll have significantly less ECUs in the vehicle than
27:41
Speaker 4: many of the other competitive manufacturers.
27:43
Speaker 1: Greg, you're literally speaking the war cry of so many
27:46
Speaker 1: of us that choose to travel the world having that
27:49
Speaker 1: emphasis on simplicity with also the acknowledgment that there are regulations,
27:54
Speaker 1: that there are safety requirements that you cannot get around
27:57
Speaker 1: them as a manufacturer.
27:58
Speaker 2: And for good reason. Yeah, absolutely, for good reason.
28:01
Speaker 1: So the fact that that is top of mind for
28:03
Speaker 1: you and your team is not only makes this vehicle
28:06
Speaker 1: more endearing, but it speaks to the true intention of
28:09
Speaker 1: it as you bring it to market. We know that
28:11
Speaker 1: we're still a couple of years away, but just know
28:13
Speaker 1: that there a lot of us are rooting for you
28:16
Speaker 1: and this vehicle to be successful in North America. And
28:19
Speaker 1: I'm actually standing here on this mountaintop overlooking beautiful Virginia,
28:24
Speaker 1: and in fact, there's a mountaintop not too far away
28:26
Speaker 1: that was owned by my seventh great uncle George Washington. Yes,
28:30
Speaker 1: that is so a pleasure to speak to you today,
28:33
Speaker 1: Greg Scott, thank you, thank you so much much appreciate it.
28:36
Speaker 2: Pleasure