Ratcliffe is open to not only battery-electric vehicles but a world beyond them, though he says the Fusilier is a legislative necessity to be able to operate in the UK and the EU. So beyond EVs, range-extended electric cars (his personal favourite new technology), improvements to internal combustion engines, e-fuels, biofuels and hydrogen all hold appeal and should be on the table.
As a global company, Ineos has a global outlook and Ratcliffe believes that, for example, Europe stopping development of internal combustion engines will have an impact on reducing carbon emissions in places like South America where EVs are less plausible than ever-improved, lower-carbon combustion-engined cars are.
There was surprise in our audience that it took at least half an hour for a question to come up on Manchester United, Ratcliffe’s recent investment that has thrusted him firmly into the wider public consciousness. That question was in the context of Toby Ecuyer, who designs anything and everything that wears an Ineos badge, having a go at redesigning the United logo, which Ecuyer quickly clarified he would not be doing lest any unwanted headlines get out.
Meanwhile, Ratcliffe couldn’t resist a dig, intended or otherwise, at the other side of Jaguar Land Rover (Land Rover, of course, took him to court over claimed copyright infringements). He believes Britain had a design icon equivalent to the Porsche 911 with the Jaguar E-Type, which could have had its design evolved over time to leave us with a “marvellous car today”. Picking a design, sticking with it and evolving it is his plan at Ineos.
Those plans are fascinating and logical, as well as well financed. Surprisingly, CEO Lynn Calder said the company breaks even and had “a couple of months last year in the black”, although that’s for day-to-day running and excludes the huge investments made in model development and the Hambach factory in France. “The return on investment won’t be this year – it’s a long way away for that,” she said.
The car world is a better place with Ineos and its cars in it, and so is the automotive industry for having Sir Jim Ratcliffe as part of it.