And again, political pressure on the Donald will be great.  I'm surprised  the lady in the Statehouse hasn't been making a lot of noise😎

I think it's a good idea to enter what seems to be a growing segment.  My concern is just to make sure that they do enough differentiation to make it worthwhile for customers.  I feel if they just take a Bronco and change the body panels/fenders, tack a Lincoln grille on and insert a Lincoln dash, that it'll fail. I think buyers for that type of vehicle will want a fixed roof and the additional refinement/NVH that comes with that.  Bronco's roof as-is won't cut it, so I don't know if it's possible to build a fixed roof version around that (not just "perma-bolting" on a fixed roof over the roll cage) without it being ungainly, or if a complete new top hat is in the works.....that'd likely be "easier" since it's BOF, but also cost more because they're reusing less.   I think Bronco's dash setup would work perfectly with the new Lincoln interior - with a full width screen right at the base of the windshield.  We all know Ford is behind in the tech department, but it'd be really cool if they could have an offroad mode where get the front camera to display across the entire full width screen to do an "invisible hood" type setup.

There are a lot of good product design baked into Bronco New Energy. The more I see it, the more I like it.   Too bad we won't get it in the US.

There is no way VW will be able to sell enough Scout to justify the big factory investment in South Carolina. It was always inevitable that another VW brand will end up with a version of the SUV based on the Scout platform. Audi just seem like the most obvious candidate. 

PHEV would still need a grill for the radiator.

I already covered this before in this thread. Every luxury brand is looking to expand in the authentic midsize 4x4 segment. It is the only part of the luxury vehicle market that is growing in all parts of the globe. Lexus dealers are still charging ADM on the GX. Mercedes and Land Rover all both adding new variants of G-wagen and Defender as fast as they can. Rivian staked its entire reputation on it. BMW and VW are preparing to enter the segment. Every luxury Chinese brand is adding similar products there too.    Lincoln 4x4 using Bronco chassis doesn't need a lot of volume if it brings in big profits. Lincoln doesn't sell that many Navigator either but it is a tremendous profitable vehicles and it keeps the dealers very well fed.    The comparison of midsize 4x4 SUV to Blackwood or LT is totally flawed. No one wanted Lincoln pickup (or any luxury brand pickup for that matter). But luxury SUV is a staple and we already know people will buy Lincoln SUV. In fact, that's the only thing Lincoln sells now. Not to mention it invented the modern big luxury SUV. Prior to Navigator, big luxury brand SUV simply did not exist. The only thing that came close before was Range Rover but that was a much smaller SUV and notoriously unreliable.     The point is Lincoln brand has the creditability to sell a $70K~$120K midsize 4x4. This is probably the lowest hanging fruit in all of Ford's product planning right now.    The bigger mystery is why GM never bothered to do a smaller Escalade. That would print money too. It's just really crazy that the Ford and GM that have the midsize 4x4 chassis and the knowhow to design, market, and sell luxury SUVs, are letting other brands eat their lunch, both in the US and in China/Europe.  

BMW is considering an entrant too.

Apparently another automaker feels there’s a market for a luxury off-roader:   An Unexpected Name Looks to Take On the Land Rover Defender with Its Own Off-Roader The Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen and Land Rover Defender are supposedly about to get another contender.   https://www.gearpatrol.com/cars/a-new-boxy-and-rugged-4x4-from-audi/   The story provides good reasoning to join the market.  I think Lincoln could do it better though. 

Navigator at least got a unique front/rear look, even if changes inside were minimal.  LT got even less - a grille insert and some red reflectors on the tailgate.   I think they were scarred by the Blackwood, which went too far differentiating (i.e. making the bed useless), so they did too little to justify it for buyers.  Keep in mind too, by the time they had the LT around, the Navi/Expy had been decoupled from F-150 (i.e. no shared front ends/interiors), so the market was demanding higher differentiation.

1) Electrics still have air intakes (usually on the bottom, as you point out) 2) the article speculated that maybe it's a PHEV, and mentioned Toyota has some sort of new compact 4-cyl design