Talk about a truck that’s built for purpose.
On its face, the Ineos Grenadier is already a different kind of vehicle to your standard 4×4, whether you get the SUV or the pickup. The company is offering a unique take on their vehicle thanks to a partnership with Bostwana-based Kavango Engineering (now an in-house entity called Ineos Kavango, after the automaker purchased the outfit in 2023). In the process, you’ll be able to get a safari-spec build, called the Grenadier Game Viewer, backed by a full warranty without having to go to another aftermarket builder.
The Game Viewer debuted last year in prototype form at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, as well as Travel Indaba and We Are Africa, after Kavango built the first safari-focused Grenadier back in 2022. This production version loses its fixed roof in favor of a high-mounted canvas setup, while the longer wheelbase allows seating for up to nine passengers. However, Ineos notes the Game Viewer can be extensively customized, and able to accommodate anywhere between four and nine depending on what the buyer wants in terms of seating, storage space and roof design.
Whatever details prospective buyers work out with the Ineos Kavango team, the result is a vehicle that comes backed by the automaker’s full warranty and aftersales support, as if you just bought the standard truck. The Kavango outfit, based in Maun, Botswana, will handle ongoing servicing, maintenance and repairs. If you don’t happen to be in Africa, though, the automaker says operators can maintain the vehicle themselves without voiding the warranty, so long as they use approved procedures and parts. If needed, Ineos Kavango will work with your closest Grenadier service center to offer training, parts, tooling and “preferential parts pricing and service plans”, according to the company’s announcement this week.
Next month, four Ineos Grenadier Game Viewers will go into service at Hidden Lodge in South Africa. In the process, the company touts founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s vision of creating a modern take on the old-school Land Rover Defenders. His decision came about while he was on a safari in Botswana a decade before we saw the first Grenadier hit the streets, so there’s a fitting evolution in seeing this build make it to production.
Ineos Kavango, for its part, is currently equipped to build up to 200 of these in-house safari conversions each year. There’s no set pricing for the Game Viewer since each buyer will likely have different needs. After the prototype generated “enormous interest from game reserves and luxury safari lodges across Sub-Saharan Africa and from ranches and estates in the US, Middle East and Southeast Asia”, you can get a pretty good idea at where these vehicles will end up starting next year.
