Ford’s luxury brand is ramping up to take on Cadillac.
Will Sabel Courtney
Ford has big electric plans for Lincoln — and it appears they’re going to happen even sooner than anticipated. Reuters reports that Lincoln is accelerating its EV timeline and will launch five new battery-electric vehicles by 2026. The lineup — as one would no doubt expect — will be SUV-heavy, with either replacements for or EV analogs to the Corsair, Nautilus, Aviator and Navigator.
Per the report, the Lincoln plans will proceed despite Ford not yet having a dedicated EV platform for them. Ford and Rivian canceled plans to develop an electric Lincoln vehicle using the Rivian skateboard platform.
Smaller Lincoln SUVs will use an improved version of Ford’s modified platform in the Mustang Mach E. The electric Navigator will use the dedicated EV truck platform Ford is developing for the next-generation F-150 Lightning pickup. The first Lincoln EV to arrive will be Aviator-sized, built in Canada and hit production in late 2024 or early 2025.
Ford expediting Lincoln’s conversion to electric vehicles isn’t surprising. Many of Lincoln’s direct competitors, such as Jaguar, Cadillac and Volvo, are pledging to go all-electric by 2030 or sooner. Cadillac should be launching its electric Lyriq (or LYRIQ to be precise) crossover, with at least a nominally sub-$60,000 price tag, later this year.
Lincoln’s trademark quiet luxury should work well with electric cars. And we’re intrigued to find out what kind of airy names Lincoln comes up with for things like braking regen.
The key will be Ford ramping up its electric vehicle production capacity to 600,000 units globally by the end of 2023. Ford had to shut down F-150 Lightning orders due to unprecedented interest. The brand is currently working through massive backlogs for the new Bronco SUV and Maverick small pickup . Great products only matter if you can get them to dealers.
Keyword: Lincoln May Have Exciting Changes Coming Sooner Than We Thought