Lincoln has recently shown the Lincoln Navicross concept, but future Lincolns will be designed in a new dedicated studio.
It would appear Ford is getting serious about plans to revive its flagging Lincoln brand. The automaker will give Lincoln its own design studio within the Product Development Center in Dearborn.
While Lincolns will continue to be based on Fords – something most automakers do successfully between their mainstream and luxury brands – new Lincoln Design Director Max Wolff will be charged with giving the luxury versions a unique look.
According to Autoline Daily, Ford will also invest in unique interiors and powertrains, adding that those powertrains will offer big improvements in fuel economy.
The news comes on the heels of Ford’s recent announcement that it will invest $1.2 billion in new Lincoln models, with seven new vehicles planned for the next four years.
What remains to be seen is how much of an impact the new design studio can have on those new vehicles since the designs for at least some of them must already be set because of the auto industry’s long lead times.
But a unique design studio could be the key to resurrecting the luxury brand.
Critics have complained for years that Lincolns share too much in common with lesser vehicles from the Ford division. But luxury buyers won’t often pay more for a car that is similar to a car sold down the street for less.
In fact, TDB Contributing Editor Tim Healey laid out his plan for fixing Lincoln in a column this week. Click here to read the column.
While some pundits have suggested that Lincoln would go the way of Ford’s Mercury division and end up on the trash heap, that would go against recent convention, where automakers with high aspirations such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota have added luxury marquees.
It only makes sense. Luxury vehicles are cash cows, where automakers can charge hefty premiums for vehicles that sell in smaller volumes than their mainstream counterparts. But they also allow automakers to spread out development costs and give buyers more choices.
There’s also precedence for rebuilding a storied luxury brand and Ford need only look just down the street to General Motors for an example of making it work. For years, Cadillac made do with a series of badge-engineered cars that differed little from their mainstreamcounterparts. But in 1999, Cadillac started to show concept vehicles with its “Art and Science” design style, something the automaker has continued through its present lineup.
Lincoln needs a similar design template. Just as the Cadillac CTS is obviously of the same family as the SRX, Lincolns need to do more than just put the split-wing grille on the front and call it good.