Not surprisingly, the Lincoln Z will be launched on Arbor Day on March 12, which can be seen as a "tree" planted by the Lincoln brand next to the mid-size car of the joint venture brand - to achieve "up and down" for the joint venture brand and luxury brands.
But more precisely, Lincoln's real purpose was to avoid head-on competition with first- and second-tier luxury brands and begin to put down his body to "sharpen the knife" towards the joint venture.
As a luxury brand mid-size sedan, the pre-price of 255,000 yuan is indeed very sincere - what else to buy even after the offer is still 230,000 yuan of the entry-level hybrid Toyota Asian Dragon, 246 horsepower Lincoln Z is not more fragrant? And in general, the official listing, the price will be lower than the pre-sale price, then Lincoln Z into the 240,000 yuan range will also be a high probability event.
Spending money on joint venture cars to drive luxury brand cars has become a reality, and this is why Lincoln Z is favored by many people.
When things go wrong, there must be demons. Is Lincoln Z actively sincere or active in competing with joint venture brands? Obviously not, Lincoln Z's "low price" is completely forced to choose helplessly. The reason why many people think that Lincoln is "taking the initiative" is largely confused by Lincoln's glamorous market sales in the past two years.
According to the data, in 2020, Lincoln sold more than 60,000 vehicles in China, an increase of 32% year-on-year; in 2021, sales exceeded 90,000 vehicles, an increase of 48% year-on-year. Lincoln became the brand with the highest year-on-year growth in the entire luxury brand, not one of them.
The reason for lincoln's significant increase in sales over the past two years has been mainly due to the contribution of adventurers of the lower-priced entry-level SUV models. In 2020 and 2021, Lincoln brand sales of adventurers accounted for nearly 50% - that is, for every two models Lincoln sold, one is an adventurer.
According to Che Wenyi's visit to the terminal market, the adventurer has certain discounts, the actual price is about 240,000 yuan, and in the sales composition, the entry and middle-end models account for more. Therefore, the actual price of the adventurer's main sales model is 240,000-260,000 yuan. In fact, this price is quite close to the price of Toyota RAV4 and Willanda's high-end models. The adventurer's performance gave Lincoln a huge opportunity to "avoid" the competition in the luxury camp - Lincoln Z came into being.
In fact, in July 2020, Lincoln announced the discontinuation of sedan products, and will only focus on SUVs and crossover models in the future. But more than a year later, the Lincoln Z, which positioned the sedan, appeared at the Guangzhou Auto Show.
The official declaration of the Lincoln brand "focusing on SUVs and crossovers" is still in the ear, but it has quickly launched the car Lincoln Z in the Chinese market, which is insincere, mainly due to the "new generation of Ford Mondeo".
With the introduction of a new generation of Mondeo, the Lincoln Z was launched on the basis of the same platform and the same power system, which easily achieved "one fish and two eats", and perhaps the effect of 1+1>2 could be achieved.
So much so that some media said that Lincoln Z is essentially a "high-end version" of the new generation of Mondeo. Of course, it is "one fish and two eats", and the cost of domestic Lincoln Z can also be well held, which is also one of the important reasons why Lincoln Z dares to set a low price.
However, another objective reason why Lincoln Z set a low price cannot be ignored is that the price of domestic medium-sized cars of second-tier luxury brands has basically dropped to the price range of 250,000 yuan, and Lincoln has no other choice.
For example, the price of the Volvo S60, B3 version entered the 230,000 yuan range, and the price of the B4 version of the middle match entered the 240,000 yuan range. The Cadillac CT5, a medium-sized sedan that is also a luxury brand in the United States, has entered the range of 250,000 yuan, and as a rear-drive platform model, it is much better than lincoln Z in performance.
In the Chinese market, compared with Volvo and Cadillac, Lincoln is significantly inferior in terms of brand power. In this case, Lincoln must use lower prices to attract users who are more cost-effective and prefer luxury brands.
The problem is that the brand's long-established luxury brands have inherent brand tones and fans with very different personalities, so grabbing users in the luxury brand camp is obviously not Lincoln's best choice. In addition, the product positioning of the adventurer "joint venture brand +" also vividly demonstrates the feasibility of this strategy.
However, under lincoln's trend of product downward strategy, Ford's living space is being increasingly compressed. For example, Ford Ruiji, a sister car on the same platform as the Lincoln Adventurer, sold 39,000 units in 2020, while sales fell to 32,000 units in 2021.
A phenomenon with a pattern to follow may illustrate some of the problems. The relationship between the popular brand and the luxury brand under the same system is the relationship of mutual support, not the relationship of mutual clamping, when the volkswagen brand is strong, the Audi brand is more beautiful, and when the volkswagen brand performs poorly, the Audi brand is also tired.
In the long run, the Lincoln brand is blindly downward, and the impact on the Ford brand is extremely unfavorable. Of course, if Ford, as a joint venture brand, continues to perform poorly in the Chinese market, it will be difficult for Lincoln to have a large upward space in the brand premium.
Lexus prices are firm and the market performance is remarkable, not only because it is the label of the original imported car, but more because of the firm price and excellent reputation of Toyota products in the Chinese market.
Ford "sold" the Lincoln Z, perhaps not only because the Lincoln brand needs sales, but also because the Ford brand is too indisputable.
Note: Images are from the Web