Sources told Reuters over the weekend that Ford CEO Mark Fields plans to invest $5 billion to help Lincoln pose a bigger threat to the world's top luxury brands -- a stark contrast with his predecessor, Alan Mullaly, who always refused to allocate massive sums to the company's premium division and even considered getting rid of it.
“It's really important for us to have a relevant, marquee brand in the luxury segment,” Fields said.
A big chunk of those $5 billion will go into the development of a new platform, which is critical for Lincoln to increase sales threefold to 300,000 units by 2020. The Lincoln MKZ has just launched in China, and further expansion in that market will be key.
Source: Reuters