Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos Automotive has unveiled a new advertising campaign that threatens to reignite its long-running feud with Land Rover following their high-profile legal tussles.
A digital billboard erected directly outside one of its rival's London dealerships this morning shows a muddied Ineos Grenadier bumper-to-bumper with a sparkling-clean Defender, accompanied by the slogan: 'Let's take this outside'.
Ratcliffe's brand says the 'cheeky provocative caption' is intended to 'raise a smile'. However, it goes on to state that the campaign's aim is to 'differentiate its 4X4 from the regular school-run SUVs and soft-roading crossovers' in a statement directed at Land Rover's modern Defender that could renew tensions between the companies.
The ad arrives five years after Ineos won a landmark 'copycat' legal battle launched by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
The British car maker in 2016 had applied to secure the trademark rights to the shape of its old Defender 4X4, but eventually lost the ruling in 2020, opening the door for Ratcliffe to bring his utilitarian off-roader to market.
'We've held our tongues while winning the court cases over and over again, and we feel it's now time to set the record straight: we're not them and we're not trying to be them,' said Lynn Calder, Ineos Automotive CEO.
The campaign's punchy launch comes as both JLR and Ineos are - like other car makers - still reeling from Donald Trump's 25 per cent tariffs levied on all US car imports from last week.
JLR, which delivered just over 100,000 cars to America last year, announced over the weekend it has paused deliveries to the US as it 'develops a mid-to-longer term plan', while Ineos - which produces in France and shipped 8,000 vehicles across the pond in 2024 - has increased US prices by 5 per cent in response.
Explaining the advert, which went live on Monday morning on a digital billboard directly next to the Lookers Park Royal JLR showroom in West London, Ineos said it 'follows a series of unsuccessful legal challenges around the world that were intended to disrupt the development and sales of the Grenadier and hinder the growth of the start-up British brand'.
It adds: 'After years of unnecessary distraction, Ineos Automotive is drawing a line in the sand.'
An insider told This is Money that the 'Us vs. Them' campaign is inspired by the billboard spat between German luxury rivals Audi and BMW in the mid-1990s.
Played out in the US, Audi threw the first punch with an advert showing its then-new A4 saloon with the strapline: 'Chess? No thanks, I'd rather be driving The entirely new Audi A4.' The chess reference to BMW's checkerboard logo, which Audi followed up with another poster showing its family car stating: 'Your move BMW...'
The Bavarian brand shortly hit back with its own billboard nearby showing its 3 Series and the words: 'Checkmate.'
The public tête-à-tête continued and proved a great success for both brands, having sparked a wave of PR and social media attention.
However, the significant difference is that the German rivals' playful back and forth had not followed a well-documented legal tug of war.
Land Rover launched its UK court case against Ratcliffe's car brand shortly after production of the previous-generation Defender ended in January 2016 - when the British maker, owned by Indian giant Tata, was developing its modern-era replacement that's in showrooms today.
A judge in August 2020 eventually ruled in favour of findings from the Intellectual Property Office that the Defender shape JLR was seeking to protect was not distinctive enough to trademark, giving Ineos the green light to launch its 'spiritual successor'.
When asked by This is Money why Ineos risks instigating a fresh clash with JLR with its new campaign, Calder told us: 'It's not a personal feud. It's a bit of tongue in cheek - a humorous way to highlight our differences.
'Grenadier is not a soft roader; it's a pure-blood, hard off-road vehicle that has modern refinement - and there isn't anything like that on the market.'
Referencing the courtroom disputes specifically, she said these have been 'long-running legal cases that we keep winning because we are differentiated'.
She described them as 'a huge distraction that cost a lot of money' and called to 'draw a line under it and accept that we're different and we're not the same'.
Asked how she expects JLR to respond, Calder told us: 'I hope they take it as it's intended and have a sense of humour about it.
'In a time when everything is so serious – and quite rightly so – let's just have a bit of fun.'
When unveiling his plans in 2017 to launch 'the world's purest 4X4 aimed at explorers, farmers and off-road enthusiasts', Ratcliffe openly referenced the Defender as its basis.
The Ineos Automotive Chairman even posed with a pair of Defenders outside his London Grenadier pub - which inspired his vehicle's name - and said at the time: 'I'm a great admirer of the old Land Rover Defender and have enormous respect for its off-road capability - and our new 4X4 has been inspired by it.'
Calder said: 'With the Grenadier, we were trying to capture the spirit of the old Defender, but also the old Mercedes G-Wagon and Toyota Landcruiser – cars that used to be engineered with ladder frames that could go anywhere and do anything.
'Today, most of those brands have gone towards an SUV market, which is understandable and they're doing really well, but all the intrusive electronics and shiny plastics that come with that is not us. What we want to do is showcase that.'
This is Money has contacted JLR for a response.
Trump tariffs - how HLR and Ineos have responded
The advertising campaign launches at a time when both JLR and Ineos are adjusting to the enormous 25 per cent tariffs on deliveries of their vehicles into the US after Donald Trump's Liberation Day announcement on 2 April.
Experts have estimated that the price of cars will rise by thousands of dollars due to Trump's action - and could threaten demand for UK-made motor vehicles on the other side of the Atlantic.
The tariffs could add as much as $27,000 to the price of a new Range Rover in the United States - almost certainly having a negative impact on sales.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) predicted it could put some 25,000 British automotive jobs at risk.
On Saturday, JLR said in an official statement it has put all US shipments on hold.
'The USA is an important market for JLR's luxury brands,' the company said.
'As we work to address the new trading terms without business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid-to-longer term plans.'
Ineos has taken a different approach.
Calder has openly hit out at EU ministers for 'sitting on their hands' and not reacting to the US President's tariff threats sooner.
She admitted last week that Ineos Automotive had been 'planning for tariffs' and there was little they could do to protect US customers from price rises of 5 per cent.
The car maker's CEO told us: 'We've been planning this for months and it's why instead of delaying and obfuscating a price increase, I thought it would be better to be decisive and get out there with a message that's comforting.
'This is still a fantastic, super competitive price for our vehicle and in the face of a 25 per cent hit we're passing on only 5 per cent to customers. This isn't a short-term thing – this is for however long this is the case that we take the hit and protect and fight for our valued customer.'
Ineos in December 2020 announced it had turned it back on plans for a state-of-the-art factory in Bridgend to produce Grenadier, instead buying Daimler's former plant in Hambach on the French-German border to manufacture the rugged 4X4.
Calder says this was 'very much a business-driven decision' before revealing: 'At the time, to be quite honest, the UK didn't really want us.
'We were in discussions with the UK government and they didn't really want car manufacturing. Instead, we were welcomed in France with a former Mercedes-Benz state-of-the-art factory.'
Ineos' new advertising campaign comes as Keir Starmer last night unveiled his plan to 'support carmakers' in response to Trump's 25 per cent levies on US vehicle imports.
This included rubberstamping the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel models in 2030 but providing conventional hybrids and plug-in hybrids a stay of execution until 2035.
Supercar makers will also be able to sell models with petrol engines beyond 2030 while the petrol-diesel ban on new vans has been pushed back to 2035.
The Prime Minister also took significant steps to relax Zero Emission Vehicle mandate rules, including cutting fines for missing EV sales targets and 'introducing flexibilities so that very few fines will have to be paid'.
