Ineos Automotive, owned by the chemical compounds tycoon and Brexit-backing billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who’s bidding to purchase Manchester United, is to construct its electrical 4×4 at a manufacturing facility in Graz, Austria.

The electrical model of its new Grenadier off-road automobile might be developed with Magna Worldwide, a Canadian firm that makes automobiles to the designs of different producers, with manufacturing starting in 2026, Ineos mentioned. The brand new automobile might be smaller than the Grenadier, Ineos’s first mannequin that’s made at a plant in France.

Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group started making the Grenadier — a homage to Jaguar Land Rover’s authentic Defender — after failing in an try to convey again the unique mannequin when JLR ended manufacturing in 2016. Ineos thought-about constructing the Grenadier in Wales, however ended up taking on Mercedes-Benz’s plant in Moselle, close to the French-German border.

The Grenadier, which is powered by petrol and diesel engines made by BMW, is known as after a pub in London the place Ratcliffe mentioned the thought for his personal Defender-replacement was born.

Lynn Calder, chief government of Ineos Automotive, mentioned: “Our all-new electrical 4×4 might be zero-emission whereas providing prospects distinctive off-road functionality, with out compromising on-road consolation or efficiency.”