Jim Farley 'Refused' To Turn Lincoln All-Electric
The 108-year-old brand is now in a position that "makes sense" says Ford's CEO.
Lincoln has had a flurry of updates over the last two years, with the recently revamped Nautilus and Navigator leading the charge. Charging—in the plug-it-in, electric car sense—is currently limited to just one model in the Lincoln lineup, the Corsair plug-in hybrid, and that model will disappear after next year to make production room for Ford's ambitious new all-electric platform. As Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley tells it, it's all part of the plan.
“The team really pushed me to have an all-electric lineup, and I refused to do it. And I’m sure glad we didn’t. I’m sure glad we didn’t," Farley told Hagerty at Monterey Car Week. He added that the brand is "starting to discover our brand location for Lincoln that makes sense," before talking about the need for experiences to define future luxury vehicles. Features like Lincoln Rejuvenate, the wellness programs found in the Nautilus and Navigator, will put distance between premium products and their mainstream competitors.
Competitors have seen varying levels of success with electrification. Cross-town rival Cadillac has embraced battery-powered vehicles in multiple shapes and sizes, with the Lyriq achieving modest sales success and the Celestiq serving as a statement-piece flagship. Genesis, meanwhile, has walked back its ambitious all-electric plans, with the latest plan involving hybrids, tech the brand originally sought to leapfrog right over.
It's no secret that electric vehicle adoption rates are slowing too: part of that is simply math, but the current administration making EVs a target hasn't helped, to say nothing of the constant guesswork that is tariffs.
All that considered, Farley isn't ruling out electric Lincolns, or other propulsion types. He told Hagerty that electric range-extender models "would be a perfect drivetrain for us," suggesting that a hybrid and range-extender lineup would be a good mix. Farley also added that an electric Lincoln could fit into this plan, though it would need to be on the affordable side—no doubt to align with the aforementioned Ford platform. Affordable doesn't mean boring, either: Farley says an all-electric model with "over-the-top color choice and over-the-top interior customization would make sense.”
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Kyle began his automotive obsession before he even started school, courtesy of a remote control Porsche and various LEGO sets. He later studied advertising and graphic design at Humber College, which led him to writing about cars (both real and digital). He is now a proud member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC), where he was the Journalist of the Year runner-up for 2021.
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