Dialogue with Jia Mingdi: Lincoln’s Bet Once Again

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Author | Chai Xuchen

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

The Chinese luxury car market has seen a clear shift in recent years: growth is no longer evenly distributed but has been re-stratified.

On one end, BBA continues to push downwards, driving prices ever lower; on the other, new entrants keep expanding the boundaries of experience, shifting the definition of “luxury” from mechanical capabilities to intelligence and interaction. The second-tier luxury brands caught in the middle are entering a more realistic stage, no longer pursuing linear growth but needing to reconstruct their position within the new order.

Lincoln is currently undergoing this reconstruction process.

It once saw rapid growth during the early stages of local production, with annual sales nearing 90,000 units around 2021, but then entered an adjustment cycle, falling back to around 30,000 units by 2025. Behind this curve, Lincoln is transitioning from an “expansionist brand” to a “structural brand.”

In an interview after the 2026 Beijing Auto Show, Lincoln China President Jia Mingdi told Wallstreetcn, "The brand label is 'comfort,' the product label is 'all-terrain luxury,' and the experience label is 'The Lincoln Way.'"

These three sets of keywords form the foundation of Lincoln’s entire strategy today. Essentially, it’s answering a more pragmatic question: in a rapidly fragmenting market, what can Lincoln rely on to maintain its presence and competitiveness?

The answer is not about a single-point breakthrough, but a system-wide rebuild.

Rhythm Shift

If you observe Lincoln’s changes over the past few years within the industry’s framework, you’ll find it’s undergoing a classic “growth logic switch.”

In the early days, leveraging localization dividends, Lincoln quickly entered the 300,000-yuan market with the Corsair and Nautilus, establishing brand recognition. But as the industry entered an accelerated phase of new energy and intelligence, the growth driver began to shift, and relying solely on fuel vehicle expansion became increasingly weaker.

This explains why Lincoln has not pursued aggressive expansion in recent years but has instead focused on system stability.

The most notable change comes from channels.

Lincoln's "Spark Wildfire Plan" is essentially a channel structure reorganization.

On April 24, Jia Mingdi told Wallstreetcn, "So far, the Spark Wildfire plan has received 77 investor applications, 32 have been approved, and 26 shops have been built. By the end of the year, it's expected to reach 42."

But the more crucial change is in cost structure. Jia Mingdi said that traditional Lincoln stores cover 6,000–10,000 square meters, while the new model reduces single store investment from 30 million yuan to about 4 million yuan, saving over 200 million yuan in new store investments overall.

"After the lightweight transformation, dealer operating costs drop by around 40%," he added.

This means Lincoln is doing something very pragmatic: shifting channels from “heavy asset-driven” to “efficiency-driven.”

In luxury brand systems, this step isn’t easy, as it’s essentially redefining the cost structure of “luxury experience.” But the outcome is clear: dealer profitability remains among the industry’s best. “Lincoln dealer profitability ranks second among luxury brands, and if subsidies are excluded, it could actually be first,” Jia Mingdi said.

The key takeaway is Lincoln is using channel efficiency to hedge against market volatility.

“Comfort” is not just a slogan

If channels are Lincoln’s "structural chassis," then the brand-level keyword "comfort" is the cognitive anchor it’s trying to rebuild.

Yet Lincoln does not treat “comfort” as an abstract concept, but breaks it down. It’s divided into three levels: brand, product, experience. At the brand level, “comfort” corresponds to emotional value; at the product level, it means “all-terrain luxury”; at the experience level, it’s embodied in the “Lincoln Way Pro” service system.

The significance of this break down is to turn a subjective term into an actionable system. Going further, Lincoln even subdivides the Chinese market into “eight major cultural zones.”

Jia Mingdi shared some examples with Wallstreetcn: “Jiangnan culture emphasizes boundaries, Northeast prioritizes emotional connection, North China emphasizes nobility, South China is more pragmatic and values family.” On the product and marketing level, Lincoln will adjust its product expressions, configuration communications, and even store experience methods according to the region. “A thousand stores, a thousand faces—but with a consistent sense of nobility,” he said.

From an industry perspective, this strategy is essentially a “localized luxury reconstruction,” no longer assuming a uniform national understanding of luxury, but acknowledging differences and building an experience system around them. Meanwhile, Lincoln is also reinforcing its “all-terrain luxury” product label.

For example, the Navigator shares its chassis with the F-150 Raptor, the Aviator shares its power system, and the entire lineup features strengthened AWD and chassis capabilities.

Jia Mingdi summed up: "Among luxury models with all-terrain capability, Lincoln is the most comfortable; among all comfortable cars, Lincoln's all-terrain capability is among the top."

This statement essentially aims to build a differentiated memory point: using mechanical capability to support emotional expression.

Looking for Rhythm Windows

If channels and brand are Lincoln’s "certainties in reconstruction," then new energy and intelligence are where it chooses its rhythm.

Lincoln hasn't adopted an aggressive pure-electric transition, but is taking multiple technical pathways for parallel validation.

“We’ve tested pure electric, plug-in hybrid, and range-extender. After market verification, we'll choose the more precise route,” Jia Mingdi told Wallstreetcn, adding the next generation of new energy products will launch as early as late 2027 or early 2028.

This rhythm clearly favors “later entry” rather than “first-mover definition.”

But this doesn’t mean Lincoln is stagnant in the new energy domain; quite the opposite, it’s continuing to enhance its "stability + safety" narrative for its hybrid-electric systems, emphasizing linkage to global mature technology frameworks.

In terms of intelligence, Lincoln’s focus is experience upgrades over architectural disruption. "The most important plan next year is the new generation SYNC+ system, with comprehensive upgrades for human-machine interaction, Baidu Maps, display content, and more," Jia Mingdi said.

At the same time, all models will gradually be equipped with L2-level assisted driving—without configuration tiers, emphasizing consistent experience. Strategically, Lincoln prefers to incrementally enhance intelligent experience within the existing product framework, rather than reconstruct product logic through an entirely new platform.

The core of this rhythm is controlling uncertainty, staying flexible before the technical route is fully settled.

Looking back, it's hard to simply label Lincoln as "aggressive" or "conservative" today. It’s more like doing something complex but clear: after market structure changes, it’s rebuilding a self-consistent operational system.

This system has three parts: First, channel efficiency—reducing cost structure via the Spark Wildfire Plan; Second, brand reconstruction—breaking down regional luxury perceptions with “comfort”; Third, technical rhythm—maintaining multiple pathways between new energy and intelligentization.

Taken separately, none of these moves appears aggressive, but combined, they form a textbook “structural adjustment path.” It doesn’t rely on short-term bursts, but on system stability. From an industry perspective, Lincoln’s challenge isn’t “whether it can still grow,” but whether it can stabilize its position within the new market structure.

And in this regard, it’s attempting to offer an answer different from the past: no longer pursuing a singular definition of luxury, but using layered expressions of “comfort” to bring the brand back into different users’ decision sets.

In a luxury car market undergoing reorder, this “slow variable strategy” may not be overt, but it might be closer to the true operating cycle.

Risk Warning and Disclaimer ClauseMarkets are risky, investment needs caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it consider individual users’ particular investment objectives, financial situation, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions herein fit their specific circumstances. Invest accordingly and at your own risk. ```