Building off a previous relationship with INEOS Automotive for contracted vehicle engineering, Magna is adding a new model to its complete vehicle manufacturing branch – an all-electric 4×4 designed to go off-road.
Magna International is a globally recognized automotive contract manufacturer with over 130 production and assembly facilities across North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. The company is in the process of expanding its automotive expertise in the state of Michigan following a $500 million investment.
Simultaneously, Magna is investing another $470 million to expand its existing operations across Ontario, Canada, creating over 1,000 new jobs. Across the pond, Magna Steyr’s plant in Graz, Austria, is currently home to the assembly of the Fisker Ocean, which began production last November.
According to today’s announcement, Magna is bringing a new and exciting build to Austria in the form of an off-road EV for existing customer INEOS Automotive.
Magna set to go off-road with EVs in Graz by 2026
To date, Magna Steyr has produced over 4 million vehicles across 31 different model designs. That said, many of those builds were engineered by the OEMs who contracted Magna for its manufacturing know-how.
In recent years, Magna has developed a lot of innovative EV technology, and it has decades of experience engineering complete builds of vehicles for its customers. For example, in 2018, Magna began working with INEOS Automotive to provide complete vehicle engineering services for the latter’s flagship off-road vehicle – the Grenadier.
Now, INEOS wants to go all-electric with its second model and has once again asked Magna to help bring it to fruition. According to Magna, it will be responsible for the complete engineering of the new off-road electric vehicle, in addition to its awarded contract to manufacture the EVs in Graz, Austria. Per Magna Complete Vehicles interim president Roland Prettner:
We are excited to have been chosen as INEOS Automotive’s strategic manufacturing partner, building on the strength of our existing relationship in vehicle engineering. This new electric vehicle adds nicely to our line-up in Austria and showcases our flexibility in producing a range of vehicles from ICE-based to fully electric.
We don’t know many other details about INEOS’ off-road EV design yet, but the company already has an engineering ace up its sleeve with Magna’s help, as it approaches the start of production in 2026. INEOS Automotive CEO Lynn Calder also spoke to the contract manufacturing agreement:
Having worked together on the engineering of our crucial first product, we’ve seen first-hand the value of applying Magna’s agility, expertise and experience to a complete vehicle development program. Deepening our collaboration is a natural next step as we use the Grenadier as a springboard for our continued growth as a global automotive brand with our second model line. We’ll once again work with the very best partners to launch another world-class product to our customers in 2026.
INEOS’ combustion-dependant Grenadier model looks like a cool 4×4, but it’s by no means aerodynamic. It will be interesting to see what types of innovative designs and engineering Magna brings to its customer’s all-electric off-road models over the next three years. This will be a development process we are sure to keep an eye on.
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