1940 Lincon Zephyr 5 Window Coupe on 2040-cars

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Lincoln Continental death looms with changes at Flat Rock Plant

Ford's Flat Rock Assembly plant just south of Detroit produces the Ford Mustang and the Lincoln Continental. Automotive News reports that the automaker plans to produce two battery-electric crossovers at the facility, the EVs scheduled for sale in the 2023 model year. The EVs were previously meant to be built in Ford's Cuautitlan Stamping and Assembly plant in Mexico, which builds the Fiesta. According to the AN piece, moving the EVs to Michigan means the end of Lincoln Continental production in the U.S. Sunset is expected in "late 2021" for a sedan that is just three years old, and that never got the momentum to assert itself and reassert the Continental nameplate. The Continental has been on death watch since at least March 2018, when Ford Authority reported that the luxury sedan wouldn't get more than one generation. The changing of several guards in the top ranks scotched a plan to move the Continental onto the CD6 platform for rear- and all-wheel-drive vehicles. In September 2018, Jalopnik put more meat on those crossbones, saying Flat Rock workers alleged the big Lincoln could bid adieu as soon as this year, and automaker insiders had seen production merely scheduled — not approved — for 2020, with nothing beyond that. Then, as now, Ford appears to be leaving open the possibility for Continental production to continue in China, and just maybe be exported here. The two twinned midsized EVs, using the codenames CDX746 and CDX747, would come in Ford and Lincoln flavors. Said to be roughly the size of the Ford Edge/Lincoln Nautilus platform siblings, the automaker has requested suppliers gear up for annual production of up to 65,000 units between the two models. When they arrive, they'll form part of the 16 EVs Ford plans to have on the market worldwide by 2022. The others we know of so far are the crossover that will channel the Mustang, an electric F-150 pickup, and an EV project with Rivian.

RWD Lincolns are coming, fate depends partly on MKZ success

The product portfolio at Lincoln may seem a bit sparse at the moment, but if a report is to be believed, new products are on the way. TheDetroitBureau.com spoke with sources at Lincoln and Ford, who claimed the American premium brand is working on, perhaps more than one, rear-wheel-drive vehicle.
Lincoln would likely platform-share with the next-generation Ford Mustang to develop those RWD offerings in the early going. Moving forward, the report indicates that Lincoln could take the lead on other rear-drive projects in the future. As the RWD architecture continues to take shape, "most or all" of the front-wheel-drive portfolio will also be offered with all-wheel drive as an option, ala Audi.
But wait, there's more! The report also suggests that a replacement for the full-size MKS is on the way, as well as a new Navigator and a luxury crossover based on the current Ford Escape.

Autoblog Podcast #391

Episode #391 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Mike Harley and Brandon Turkus talk about the appointment of Kumar Galhotra to run Lincoln, changes coming for Scion, the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, and which cars won't live into 2015. We also take a quick detour to talk about the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge prototype, which Mike Harley just came back from driving. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the new rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #391: Topics: 2015 Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Prototype New boss at Lincoln Scion xB, iQ ending soon Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Cars that won't live to 2015 In the Autoblog Garage: McLaren 650S Hyundai Genesis Hosts: Dan Roth, Michael Harley, Brandon Turkus Runtime: 01:42:06 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge - 30:05 Kumar Galhotra to Lincoln - 34:32 Scion Changes - 43:58 Dodge Charger Hellcat - 54:25 Discontinued Cars - 01:06:24 Q&A - 01:22:59 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Podcasts Dodge Hyundai Infiniti Lincoln McLaren Scion Supercars mclaren 650s