Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster Pickup Truck Hit With Chicken Tax

Much to our surprise, the 2025 Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster pickup truck is now available to order, and units will start shipping to the United States later this year. We’re somewhat shocked by this announcement as the Grenadier Quartermaster, which is related to the Grenadier SUV, will be hit by a US tariff known as the Chicken Tax. As a result, the Quartermaster will start at $86,900, a significant increase over the SUV’s $71,500 MSRP. Opting for either the Trailmaster Edition or Fieldmaster Edition adds another $8,000 to the price tag.

As this truck is being built in France, it qualifies for the 25% tariff on light-duty trucks, fondly known as the Chicken Tax. In our estimation, Ineos Automotive is now the first and only automaker in recent memory to sell a foreign-built pickup truck in the US.

What Is The Chicken Tax?

If you’re wondering what a “Chicken Tax” has to do with pickup trucks, the story is fairly simple. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson retaliated against France and West Germany for placing tariffs on US chicken with tariffs on a range of products including potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and light-duty trucks.

That means any pickup truck not built in North America gets hit with a 25% tariff if it’s imported and sold here. This explains why all Japanese trucks like the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier are built here, and trucks like the Volkswagen Amarok have never been brought stateside.

Over the years, automakers have found some loopholes to avoid the Chicken Tax with varying levels of success. Subaru, for example, added rear-facing jump seats to its Brat in order to qualify it as a passenger vehicle. Ford built the Transit Connect in Turkey with rear seats installed, but then removed them after the vans passed customs. This loophole was later eliminated, and Ford was forced to pay $1.3 billion in penalties. Mercedes was the most successful, disassembling fully-built vans from Germany and rebuilding them in South Carolina, avoiding the tariff.

Ineos, it seems, will just eat the Chicken Tax and pass on the price increase to the customer.

A Truck Unlike Any Other

Aside from the Jeep Gladiator, which boasts similar levels of off-road capability, the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster is a truck unlike any other sold in the US. It’s mechanically identical to the Grenadier SUV (known as the station wagon), albeit longer in the back due to the truck bed. Power comes from a BMW-sourced 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six, sending 282 horsepower to an eight-speed automatic with a two-speed transfer case.

The Quartermaster boasts a 7,700-pound tow rating with 1,675 pounds of payload capacity. It features 10.4 inches of ground clearance with 31.5 inches of water fording capacity.

Will American shoppers be willing to pay a high price for a highly exclusive, purpose-built pickup truck? If so, this could open the doors to other foreign-built trucks, assuming they are unique enough to justify a high price tag.