Ineos Automotive, owned by the chemicals tycoon and Brexit-backing billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is bidding to buy Manchester United, is to build its electric 4×4 at a factory in Graz, Austria.

The electric version of its new Grenadier off-road vehicle will be developed with Magna International, a Canadian company that makes cars to the designs of other manufacturers, with production beginning in 2026, Ineos said. The new vehicle will be smaller than the Grenadier, Ineos’s first model that is made at a plant in France.

Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group began making the Grenadier — a homage to Jaguar Land Rover’s original Defender — after failing in an attempt to bring back the original model when JLR ended production in 2016. Ineos considered building the Grenadier in Wales, but ended up taking over Mercedes-Benz’s plant in Moselle, near the French-German border.

The Grenadier, which is powered by petrol and diesel engines made by BMW, is named after a pub in London where Ratcliffe said the idea for his own Defender-replacement was born.

Lynn Calder, chief executive of Ineos Automotive, said: “Our all-new electric 4×4 will be zero-emission while offering customers exceptional off-road capability, without compromising on-road comfort or performance.”