Niche manufacturer Ineos Automotive is leveraging its personal approach to customer service and a slowly expanding support network to convert Australia’s rusted-on Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series loyalists.
Formed after Land Rover wouldn’t sell the tooling and manufacturing hardware for the original Land Rover Defender to British billionaire and chemical engineer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos Automotive currently offers SUV and ute versions of the Grenadier 4×4, both of which compete directly with the 70 Series.
Nevertheless, Toyota dominates the local market The 70 Series sold up 10,301 sales in ute guise alone last year – thousands more than the next most popular heavy-duty ladder-frame off-roader. Ineos, meanwhile, has averaged around 1000 sales per year since the 2022 launch of Down Under.
The resulting confusion can be explained by many reasons Toyota’s well-known brand, its large network of around 300 dealers and the LandCruiser’ long-held reputation for reliability and mechanical simplicity.
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Assuming only 26 dealers, a name that many buyers don’t know about and whose product is still showing its long-term durability, Ineos has been very much caught in vs Goliath battle to capture market share from its Japanese rival.
But ineos is embracing and even taking advantage of its underdog status, local boss Justin Hocevar said instead of shy away from the challenge.
He told childcareman.xyz at the launch of model year 2026 (MY26) Grenadier ‘What we just have to do as a team is that we are always on our A-game with regards to supporting customers wherever they are.
We’ve heard stories of people who have had something – something that was broken, or they’ve gone wrong – in really remote places and we can snap to attention, move heaven and earth to get part to them faster than I would say the standardised processes of a large company could do.
But it’s about giving them the right tech support and making the proper people available – if someone who doesn’t really know what car they drive can connect with someone that does – even a person who is virtually able to do so then we could really help?
The examples, when they come in, are the ones which allow us to prove that despite being off-the- scale and might of a big player like Toyota you can actually react very quickly (with today’s logistics)? ‘A ,’ said.
That’s not to say Ineos isn’t looking to increase its physical presence in Australia.
The marque, Rather, plans to work with independent garages to expand its reach, particularly in regional Australia. far travelled workshops would be using stock of Ineos parts, and training from the factory to provide service and repairs for this program.
The dealership numbers are also on the cards for 2026, a small bump after the network temporarily fell last year because Ineos has dropped out of an agency sales model and in part was moved away from its network’s temporary shrunk.
We have to keep that network out as well, because at the end of the day we’re more service locations in the right places. Mr Hocevar, whose s are the hardest thing to do that for us is our size.
, “We can only be able to support so many outlets. There’s no point in a remote location where if you get re-engaged with all the costs of franchiseing and having low throughput there is nothing to do with it. So that’s what is the challenge for .”
You’ll see us focus on stronger sales and service outlets, not necessarily pushing for more of those but increasing our network with some service-only partners.” The , “It’s a great deal of fun.”
Further plans have been mapped out to enhance the Ineos ownership promise, though they are still under wraps for the time being in possession.
It’s a little more stuff up our sleeve that will come with some of the things we have got,’ said. Mr Hocevar said we’ll make some announcements throughout this year about a number of other things that we will be doing to support customers.
Earlier Ineos attempts to broaden its reach include the campaign of 2025 “Love It or Leave It” which allowed prospective owners to ‘sell’ their Grenadier Quartermaster ute back to InEo’s within six months/15,000km of buying the car.
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Explore the Ineos Grenadier showroom
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