Gurgeh

That may be true for mass market hybrid buyers, but not luxury car buyers, like Lincoln customers. The strange thing is that in China, where the Lincoln brand has really caught on (and which is now Lincoln's largest market, surpassing North American sales a few years ago), it is for whatever reason particularly sought after by younger car buyers. To overgeneralize things, in North America Lincoln is considered a brand for well-off oldsters. In China it is considered a brand for affluent hipsters. Another difference between the two markets, and you see it in the options Lincoln provides in the two markets, is that in China affluent car buyers often have a driver on staff. That's why Lincoln in China provides back-seat executive packages you don't see in North America, as well as an actual executive sedan.

Actually, there was a several year period, starting with the release of the new Continental, followed by new Navigator, the revised and rebadged Nautilus, the white-space Aviator and the new Corsair, when Lincoln really seemed to be on a roll. Then covid hit, the planned all-new Nautilus was canceled (only to be revived a few years later as a China-exclusive, then revised further as both that and an import for North America) the Rivian flagship EV was canceled, and now Ford announces the cheshiring of the ICE-based Corsair and Aviator along with an announcement that the company is basically getting out of the business of 2-row crossovers. Well, SUVs/crossovers are all Lincoln has. If there's to be no 2-row crossovers then we're looking at just the EV Aviator replacement and the Navigator. There may well be other product in the pipeline we don't know about. If so, this is a replay of Ford's mistake announcing the end of sedans without discussing what new products they had in the works in their stead.

Thanks for sharing. Wow, things in Lincoln-land look pretty dismal. It was only a few years ago that Lincoln had great ambitions to grow their market share, grow their line-up, and strongly encourage Lincoln dealerships to become Lincoln-only. I have the 2024 hybrid Nautilus on order. Will probably still go through with it. But looking forward, my guess is that Lincoln will become to Ford what Buick is to GM. A make that is mainly focused on the China market, where it is quite popular, and still exists in North America (to the extent it does) only because of that.

Actually, all Lincoln EVs will come equipped for full access to the Tesla charging network. Ford's CEO struck that deal a few months ago with Musk. Starting next year all Ford and (eventually) Lincoln EVs will be produced using the Tesla port for charging. That said, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to make long EV road trips less problematic.

Dang paywall. But thanks for the extensive subject line which, I suppose, does a good job summarizing the article.

So, is the hybrid version of the 2024 Nautilus for China's domestic market a PHEV, while the version for North America is a traditional hybrid?

Electricity taxes are embedded in the rate you pay. States, counties, cities typically put their thumbs on the scale, but the amount of those electricity taxes vary greatly from state to state or even between localities.

At least there will still be the 2024 Nautilus on a revised C2 platform, lighter than the 2023 Nautilus even while being a tad bit longer, wider and taller. That will be FMC's only mid-sized 2-row conventional family vehicle next year in North America (excluding the excellent Bronco, as I suspect there is less, well, crossover, between the outdoor-lifestyle Bronco and the around-town-and-on-the-highway family-mover Edge/Nautilus).

First off, the future of muscle cars is electric. Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but no traditional engine can compete with the power and torque of a sports car powered by high performance electric motors. Eventually, I hope the expectation for massive noise coming from the power plant will go away as function eventually wins over form. In the meantime, I personally dislike fake sound generated through the speakers to pretend an engine (or motor in the case of electrics) is something it is not. Whenever I hear it I am reminded of the kid down the block from me when I was growing up who used to clip a baseball card with a clothes pin to the arm of his front bicycle wheel with the card sticking into the spokes, making a sound the kid thought made his bicycle sound like a Harley. He also tended to make raspberry sounds with his tongue when riding his bike. Guess that made it a super high-performance Harley.

As I've noted before, this assumes that governments will permit automakers to continue making vehicles that their customers might prefer. The way auto laws and regulations are going here and in Europe, that seems unlikely. It looks like our near future is electric, whether that is what everyone wants or not (and I say this expecting that my next vehicle after the 2024 hybrid Nautilus I have on order will be an EV -- not because of government mandates but because at that point I think it will be my preferred vehicle).

Uh, due to Tesla's recent deluge of deals with other automakers, everyone will soon be using the Tesla network. It is not out; it is just the opposite. It will soon be the network for the great majority of North American EVs of all makes.

...and those conversions can have real consequences. The Oakville conversion means no Edge (a topic of spirited discussion elsewhere here on BOF), even though the product still exists in China and there is still North American demand for a 2-row midsized Ford crossover. It also nearly left Lincoln with only three products to sell, a problem only fixed by bringing the all-new Nautilus in from the Chinese plant of theirs that makes it (and the Edge) for the domestic Chinese market. That was, in my view, a necessary decision but not an easy one and not one devoid of controversy here in Ford's home market.

I think it is plausible that car buyers may not prefer to make as quick a transition from ICE to EV as Ford/GM/VW are expecting. But that assumes governments will permit car buyers to keep buying what they would like. Given the way things are going, that's not a bet I would take.

Just goes to show that style is so much in the eye of the beholder. I get what you are saying. For instance, I think the current Range Rover Sport's exterior style is timeless, clean and amazingly great in a wholistic way. Same with some of the classic Lincolns you mention. A few others I can think of? The Y2K VW Passat and the Acura TL from about the same era. They both looked carved out of a solid block into an understated work of art. But Tesla? The S has a great looking exterior, but all the rest, in my view, are over-the-top bland.

That's the thing. The Chinese Explorer has a full-bore Lincoln interior. The U.S. one, other than the big tablet screen jutting up from the center vents, looks to me looks like an outdated pick-up truck interior. But maybe that's just me.

plus, the render does it differently than with the Nautilus, where you have a lower, flatter steering wheel enabling you to view the wall-to-wall screens above it. With this render, you will get a poor view of the screens and possibly little view of the road.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2023/06/22/ford-electric-vehicles-battery-plants-ky-department-energy-loan/70347093007/ Ford-SK On venture awarded $9.2B loan from Dept. of Energy for battery plants in KY The U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office granted a conditional commitment loan of up to $9.2 billion for BlueOval SK to support its construction of three electric vehicle battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee — including one in Stanton. Ford Motor Co. and South Korean company SK On finalized the BlueOval SK joint venture in 2022 to produce batteries for future Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles at the three plants. The Department of Energy called the loan the largest single federal investment ever made in the automotive industry, according to a news release on the announcement. “We’re thrilled the Department of Energy joins BlueOval SK in our vision to electrify the future of mobility,” BlueOval SK CEO Robert Rhee said in a statement. “BlueOval SK will use this loan to its fullest as we create 7,500 good American jobs, strengthen critical domestic supply chains, and produce high-quality batteries for future Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles here in Tennessee and Kentucky.” ...

I hope 5 years will finally get into the commercialization of solid state batteries. Notice Toyota's big solid state battery "breakthrough" announcement a couple of days ago? Well, if you get into the details of the announcement you see that there's no projected date for their application and that the EVs they have planned within the next few years all use traditional EV battery technology. Their "breakthrough" seems to be nothing much different from the press releases we've seen in the last couple of years from other solid state developers about their own path to the technology's commercial application within the 5-7 year timeframe.

Looks like NACS has now become the de facto standard in the North American market, whatever the Federal Government has to say, and the network that provides it is owned by Tesla (which will be getting a huge infusion of cash as a result and presumably will be expanding its supercharger network rapidly to meet the anticipated new demand). I wonder if CCS can even survive in this market after next year.

Though I'm a Lincoln guy, I can answer to an extent. If you want a 2-row mid-sized crossover, you generally aren't going to be tempted to go with a 3-row. It is just longer than you want and has a row you won't use. If Lincoln weren't importing the new Nautilus from one of their Chinese factories, I would have gone with a Genesis GV80, Mercedes GLE 450 or Range Rover Sport. They are all designed around two rows and are shorter than the Aviator (though not cheaper), but frankly are still a little bigger than what I want. So I overcame my wish that this wasn't a Chinese import and am going with the 2024 Nautilus. My guess is that if you were an Edge customer you wouldn't be looking at the Explorer. Definitely the Bronco if you like the rugged styling and greater off-road capabilities (whether you ended up using them or not), but otherwise you'd be looking a GM, Hyundai/Kia or maybe Subaru product, but honestly I don't really know the mass-market 2-row mid-sized crossover segment well. If I had the ability to do overnight charging I might have considered the Mach-E, but I don't (yet). Plus, my periodic road trip vacations down to Chincoteague, Virginia on the southern tip of the Delmarva peninsula would have been a bit of a challenge. I expect within a few years that will get fixed.

Ford and Lincoln really need a new mid-sized, 2-row product to replace the outgoing Edge and the Nautilus soon to be imported from China (hopefully only as a stop-gap measure). It is less urgent on the Ford side of things, since they have the hot-selling Bronco, but soon FMC will lack anything that serves the role of a roomy family car with seating for less than 7.

I understand "Aztek" is available...

Regarding ADMs, I was looking at the Range Rover Sport earlier this year as a replacement for my 2019 Nautilus (ended up going with a factory order and a long wait on the new 2024 Nautilus). JLR dealers are pretty much all into ADMs as well. One salesperson I talked to was proud that at her dealership everything was MSRP -- she then went on to discuss the mandatory add-ons, like $3k for vehicle protection crap. This dealer also engages in the practice of listing on their website vehicles available for purchase that are actually factory orders for other customers (RRSs are all-new and extremely limited in supply, so almost all of them being sold currently as factory orders). Anything to get people to call them I guess. I have a great relationship with the owner of my Lincoln-only dealer (I drive further to use them) and ended up getting below MSRP. Well, only slightly below, but hey that's still good these days in the industry on new product in scarce supply.

Starting in 2017 with release of the new Continental and followed in short order by the all-new Navigator, the updated MKX (the Nautilus), the Aviator and Corsair, Lincoln appeared to be making a serious move toward revitalization and sales were improving. But the new Continental never really caught on as much as many hoped and Lincoln never made an effort to update it. Then FMC decided to shut down all sedans in North America (pretending initially that Lincoln was excluded), and then further development of the line seemed to come to a screeching halt with the all-new Nautilus canceled (later revised for China and now being brought here) and then the Rivian-derived large flagship electric vehicle also canceled. So now Lincoln has just 4 vehicles, which almost became 3. We'll see if FMC actually plans another revitalization effort as the company moves along its electrification route. What Lincoln needs is a vision, fiercely competitive product (and more of them), and maybe an impressive halo sedan (or pretend large crossover with a sloped back and lower stance -- so yeah, pretty much a sedan). But all of that takes serious investment and an actual commitment to the brand. I'm not saying make stuff luxury buyers don't want; there's lots of product out there in the luxury field that does sell. FMC really needs to decide whether to compete full-on in the luxury space on a sustained basis. Just look how far and how fast Genesis has risen in the field. It is possible, but again it takes sustained commitment, a vision, great products and resources. Back on topic, I'll be getting the 2024 Nautilus (I have a Black Label on order), which will be my second Lincoln. It is fine with me that the more powerful engine option is a hybrid, though I'd like it to have at least (and ideally more) power than the outgoing excellent twin scroll V6. I would really like to be able to avoid oversized wheels that Lincoln wants to forced me into; I may go as far as to buy my own and put them on. I wish it wasn't coming from China, but I understand the special circumstances that made this necessary at least as a stop-gap measure. If the Nautilus wasn't being brought over from China -- the only realistic option in the short term -- Lincoln would have lost me as a customer as I look to replace my 2019 Nautilus. I like the unique cabin configuration, with the smaller steering wheel and the sweep of screens above the wheel displaying driver information. Even with its recent problems, Lincoln continues to arguably have the best interiors in the business.

The 2024 Lincoln Nautilus I put a factory order in for includes 4 years of BC subscription. Wow, I had no idea the normal subscription costs would be so high. $75 a month is nuts. If it wasn't included in my purchase price (I know, I know... in the end I'm still paying for it due to the Lincoln premium) I wouldn't pay the subscription fee. I'm fine paying for the much smaller subscription for satellite radio, as that is a feature I use every day. I'd also be perfectly fine paying the lower SuperCruise type fee for BlueCruise. But $75/month for those occasional road trips? No way. The irony is, I was going back and forth between getting the 2024 Nautilus and the new Range Rover Sport. I went with the Nautilus in part because of the availability of the superior and superb BlueCruise driver's assistance package. Ford needs to rethink those prices if they want it to be the selling point that it deserves to be. The two other factors in the decision is that I very much like the lower steering wheel and driver's information above the wheel instead of viewing it through the wheel. Oh, and the fact that it is about $20k less expensive. I'm not sure that I would have gone the other way on my decision if 4 years of BC weren't included in the purchase price of the new Nautilus, but at $75/month it might have.