An unnamed "critical component" from an Ineos supplier is behind the work stoppage.
• Ineos Grenadier production has been temporarily paused.
• A "critical component shortage" from a supplier is the cause.
• Full production may not resume until 2025.
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Everyone's favorite not-a-Land Rover is having some production snafus. Ineos has halted the assembly line at its Hambach plant in France, bringing Grenadier production to a standstill. Grenadier Quartermaster pickup truck production is also down, and it could stay that way until 2025.
The problem apparently isn't with Ineos, nor is it a mechanical hiccup. Rather, a supplier that manufactures a critical trim part is the reason for the shutdown. Ineos doesn't mention the supplier by name, and the nature of the part is unknown. But it's significant to the point that, apparently, there isn't a workaround to get things back up and running.
It's possible the supplier in question is Recaro. An Ineos representative told Automotive News Europe that the problematic supplier was "in a pre-insolvency situation." Recaro Automotive filed for bankruptcy at the end of July, citing "significant financial difficulties due to extreme price increases in recent crisis years and the loss of a major contract." The company planned to continue seat production and fill existing orders during the insolvency. It's unclear if anything has changed between then and now.
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An Ineos spokesperson provided the following statement to Motor1.com regarding production:
Our production at Hambach has encountered a critical component shortage beyond our control, causing a pause in our production schedule.
Automotive supply chains are always complex and challenging, but this hits at such a busy time for us. We're getting great feedback from Grenadier customers around the world, and are already live in over 45 countries globally. We are launching in major new markets—Mexico and China—this month. By this summer, we had sold as many Grenadiers as we had for the whole of 2023. We have strong momentum and are on track to reach over 20,000 cars before the end of the year and we really want to produce vehicles for our customers, so this pause is extremely frustrating.
We are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to get our manufacturing back up and running, to catch up with demand as swiftly as we can. At the moment, we are operating a conservative scenario which would see us get back to full production rates in early 2025. In the meantime, we would like to thank our customers—in particular those waiting for their Grenadiers—for their patience as we work hard to get back to business.