Ford’s decision to collaborate with Rivian is part of the company’s “anything goes” EV strategy. Basically, Ford wants to introduce EVs at a rapid clip and will work with competitors to make that happen. The extent of their relationship hasn’t been fully disclosed. Lincoln further lifted the veil recently when they officially announced their intention to work with Rivian on an EV. It will be the brand’s first fully electric vehicle.
They also killed the MKZ. Lincoln’s sedans are essentially dead. As Semisonic would say, every new beginning comes some other beginning’s end.
Speculation about the extent of the Ford-Rivian partnership started pretty much immediately after Ford announced their $500 million contribution into the startup’s coffers. Initially, it was assumed that Ford would use Rivian’s skateboard platform on a Blue Oval product and possibly build that vehicle at one of their own plants. While it’s not clear where the Lincoln EV will be assembled, what we do know is that it won’t simply be a rebadged Rivian. According to Motor Trend, Lincoln is currently working on the “top hat” components like the body, cabin, and electronics. That suggests Rivian will provide the basic powertrain and suspension and let Lincoln customize everything else.
Given Lincoln’s recent debuts, those details make sense. The Navigator, Aviator, and Corsair share a cohesive design language and a similar interior aesthetic. More importantly, those traits earned critical acclaim from the automotive press. A wildly different looking Lincoln EV isn’t outside the realm of possibility, but in all likelihood it simply complement the brand’s modern lineup.
Lincoln did not divulge the configuration of their EV, but Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe stated it exists “in the SUV space” and looks a lot different than the R1S, which is the company’s three-row EV. Ford already has a luxury pickup in the form of the F-150 and that model is slated to get a proprietary EV powertrain within the next year or so. It’s probably not going to be a Navigator variant because that SUV will likely inherit the F-150’s EV powertrain at some point. But it could conceivably become a member of the Aviator family. The Aviator and R1S are within inches of each other in length, width, and wheelbase. And the base R1S will most likely be priced several thousand dollars above the $68,800 Aviator Grand Touring. Theoretically, it could slot above that trim as its own thing. With Chicago Assembly tasked with building the Explorer, Aviator, and Police Interceptor Utility, they probably wouldn’t be able to accommodate an Aviator EV. It also isn’t clear if the CD6 platform is capable of hosting a full EV powertrain.
Ford CEO Jim Hackett apparently wants the upcoming EV to have a 400 mile range too, which isn’t an absurd request because Rivian’s 180kWh battery is expected to enable a range slightly above that number. But it might raise the base price considerably.
With Lincoln focused top hat components, they’re most likely building an EV with a slightly different mission statement than its Rivian counterpart. They could focus on value rather than o-60 times and ornately designed cabins. But that’s just speculation. With the first Rivian models set to arrive later this year, the Lincoln can’t be too far behind.
And as Lincoln enters a new era, it leaves an old one behind. With the official demise of the MKZ, Lincoln’s letter-based naming scheme comes to an end. The mid-size sedan’s death will upset precisely no one even if it was a decent vehicle. As part of the Fusion based derivatives launched in 2005, the MKZ boasted commendable driving dynamics but could never fully separate itself from its less expensive and more attractive sibling. It never really boasted a unique selling point until it received the 3.0 liter twin turbo V6 as part of its 2017 refresh. Bizarrely, Lincoln offered it with front-wheel drive for a short period of time. But most of them will be able to send power to all four wheels.
With the Continental likely facing death next year, the MKZ leaves behind an unclear legacy. At least as a new vehicle. Pre-owned MKZ’s equipped with the 400 horsepower twin turbo V6 are frighteningly inexpensive. In that light, it’s not absurd to feel saddened by the Lincoln’s cancellation.
Interesting that this post appears right after Paul’s “Do it right the first time” post.
The Continental is finally available with the Suicide Doors (Sorry, “Coach Doors”) it should have had at launch. If these were standard on every car at launch (for about the same price), we’d probably be a lot more likely to see a second-generation Continental.
When recently outfitting the family with a round of cars to get our kids through their college years (I’m soldering on with a 2012 F-150 Lariat, hardly a sacrifice), we looked hard at an MKZ or Continental for my wife. Used, because the primary college directive around our house is no debt for parents or students.
The Continental, despite being a stretched Fusion, is a phenomenal car, and its Fusion roots are about as well hidden as possible. The Continental offers a lot you can’t get on a Fusion, but seemingly infinitely adjustable seats and horsepower you mostly can’t use are expensive bragging rights. Being a stretched Fusion, the Continental’s biggest sin (along with a lack of suicide doors) may be it is 20% too small. It looked diminutive parked along with a bunch of Lincoln SUVs at our recent auto show.
The earlier MKZs offered the 3.7 NA V6 Mustang engine with AWD as an option. With V6 options always scarce in the Fusion, this sounded like a very appealing Lincoln advantage.
Even with huge depreciation for used, these cars carried a $8,000 to $20,000 premium over the loaded Fusion Titanium 2.0T AWD that we ended up buying.
While the feel of Luxury is true in the Lincolns, the loaded Fusion, in black with Lincoln like wheels and a two-tone interior is a long way from roughing it. Our 2018 carried a $35,000 MSRP, and we bought it a year old, 12,000 miles, for $19,000 – within the premium band for similarly used Lincolns.
We call it our discount Lincoln, and the kids are still not in debt.
Despite some recent solid press for Lincoln, luxury brands have their work cut out for them to differentiate enough to attract buyers willing to pay for what are very fine lines of improvement.
My hope is the Continental name reappears on a luxury variant of the Mustang Mach E EV – with some of the sedan like cues it carries, and maybe, finally, suicide doors.
2018 Ford Fusion Titanium 2.0T AWD….
Well for me the opening panoramic roof and the multi-contour seats with massage were enough to justify the premium of the MKZ over a loaded Fusion. The wife, who loves to claim say she doesn’t need anything fancy loves those two features and is annoyed that the panoramic roof on her C-Max Energi is fixed, so she is leaning to replacing it with a Corsair Grand Touring.
Going in reverse order, I always felt that the Zephyr/MK or whatever it is was attractive to start out with when it first sported the spaceship-y design beyond being too low, at 6-1 I should have headroom in it but can’t fit in it or the Fusion if it has a sunroof or worse, the panoramic. The solid roof version Fusion is fine, not sure if that was available in the Z, I only sat in loaded auto show cars.
But then Lincoln gave up on that design direction and saddled it with the Conti’s grille which was very distinctive when it debuted (on the Conti). Doing that did nothing for the Z and worse, made the Conti look cheapened, hampering both cars. Walking up to a re-schnozzed Z at the auto show I was confused what I was looking at and mentioned such in my auto show review of that year. Just because something works for the Germans doesn’t mean it works for a brand that’s struggling, instead makes it appear that there is no real strategy.
The E-Lincoln is perhaps similarly confusing as I”m curious why Ford can’t just piggyback it on the eMustang thing. Capacity? And then the e-F150 I thought was heavily Rivian influenced/built as well but maybe I’m confused there.
In any case that makes for three different vehicles with three very different configurations, it seems like a difficult way to start launching electric models seemingly all around the same time. At this point Lincoln was just sort of relaunched with three SUV models, one of which had a lot of trouble at the beginning (and who knows if it’s out of the woods yet), but still is selling in quite low volumes of around 100k/yr combined I believe, I can’t see a more expensive e-Lincoln changing that equation besides muddling things up more especially as there isn’t really a clear size class open so it ends up cannibalizing or duplicating one of the others. Is Lincoln’s market clamoring for this? It seems like Teslas Model Y may have that budget space sewn up.
One of the worst parts is, the restyled MKZ hit the dealership earlier than Continental. I don’t know who was in charge of timing or strategic plan, but it looks rather wrong. ( maybe I should look up the name in organization chart, but it’s a hard guess )
Ford has been working on its E-150 since before their Rivian investment, and it’s clearly a home-baked affair. Why? the F-Series is Ford’s #1 product, by far, in terms of profit. So building an EV version is going to need to fit in with the overall F-Series program to various degrees. And there needs to be volume potential. Rivian is limited to their volumes, especially given their commitment to build 100k vans for Amazon.
The Lincoln SUV makes gobs of sense, as it’s a premium and relatively low volume product that fits perfectly size-wise on the Rivian skateboard. It’s still unknown as to whether it will be built in Rivian’s factory, or if Rivian will just provide the skateboard to Lincoln. But the volume can’t be high in either case, due to Rivian’s capacity issues.
As to its likely success in the market that is of course a huge question. At this time these is almost no real EV market outside of Tesla. Yet everyone needs to try and get in. It’s going to be interesting.
So much this, Paul. Non-Tesla electric vehicles so far have been a small niche, so I’m not sure who exactly is going to buy all these electric vehicles that every other manufacturer seems determined to rush out.
Maybe the Mach-E can break out and be the first hit EV without a “T” on its nose, or maybe not. Either way, I’m warming up my popcorn maker.
Ford did a pretty good job differentiating the styling of the 2013+ MKZ from the Fusion, but they did that by giving it a trendy “four door coupe” roofline that killed back seat headroom (just like FCA did with the Charger). In my book, a main reason to buy a luxury sedan is to get a big, spacious back seat.
I’m still not convinced that Mulally was wrong about Lincoln. Its it really worth the extra overhead compared to making stylish Fords and offering a high-zoot trim line like the Vignale Fords in Europe? Maybe, maybe not.
Interesting as none of this stuff is sold here.
I think there are some of us out there that will miss the MKZ. They are surprisingly common in my area and just like the Jeep wave there is the MKZ nod, not something I’ve experienced with any other car I’ve owned that was modern at the time.
Sure If I pass another IH or Marauder we’ll wave, and maybe even stop and talk. However it seems that most of the time I run across one of those I’m usually driving a different vehicle.
So yeah I think other owners really like them and will miss them.
Still deeply in love with the Continental – even in regular form without suicide doors.
To me the frustration is that as GM and Ford kill off sedans the product has never been more competitive compared to the competition. (At least in the FWD transverse engine era.) They actually put in effort as compared to say an early 2000s Malibu.