Lincoln Dealer Network Will Shrink Under New Strategy

[ice-capades]

Lincoln Dealer Network Will Shrink Under New Strategy

https://fordauthority.com/2023/04/lincoln-dealer-network-will-shrink-under-new-strategy/

 

 

As was the case with Ford dealerships, Lincoln dealers were also recently asked to opt in or out of FoMoCo’s new Model e Certified program, which will allow those entities to sell all-electric vehicles moving forward. Ultimately, the majority of the Lincoln dealer network opted in to the program, which has since been revised following some feedback, as well as some controversy over its requirements. However, with the luxury brand’s sales on the decline for three straight years now – prompting it to skip the New York International Auto Show this year – its dealer network will also continue to shrink, according to Automotive News.

 

 

Lincoln had around 637 dealers as of the start of 2023, along with 145 standalone stores, though Craig hinted that the total number of Lincoln dealers should come in at a little more than half that, or roughly 356 – which is, coincidentally, the number that have signed up for the new Model e program. “At the end of the day, all I know is we have too many,” she said. “As we evolve to EVs with the dealers that signed up with our EV tenets, it’s probably in the right snap bracket to where we ultimately need to go, and we’ll work really closely with the dealers to get there.”

Edited April 20, 2023 by ice-capades
Additional Content

[ice-capades]

Seeing the photos made me wonder when, if ever, anyone ever saw so many people in a Lincoln showroom! Nice staging!

[tbone]

Let me start by saying I really like the current Lincoln products, but In respect to falling sales, it’s hard to be a major player when you have basically four vehicles to sell.  Throw in Covid, which affected supply, and have suspect quality as of late, doesn’t help matters. Does shrinking the number of locations that provide visibility to your products sound like the best strategy?

[rperez817]

33 minutes ago, tbone said:

Does shrinking the number of locations that provide visibility to your products sound like the best strategy?

 

In this case, yes. Dealership physical locations are far less crucial for providing visibility to new automobiles nowadays compared to 5 years ago. Their significance will shrink further as Lincoln's transition to an all-electric vehicle lineup continues, and as the new vehicle retail sales model shifts to primarily online interactions using reservations and sold orders.

 

And the number of Lincoln dealerships is far in excess of what's needed for its sales volume. For comparison, Tesla (the premier U.S. domestic luxury car brand) has one third the number of physical stores as Lincoln yet Tesla sales were nearly six times higher than Lincoln's in the U.S. last year.