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Following Ford's announcement that it would stop production of the Fusion (the domestic model is Mondeo), it was recently reported that Ford would also stop production of the Lincoln MKZ, which was built on the same platform as Ford Mondeo, meaning that the two models would be discontinued overseas on the same day on July 21.

According to Ford's plan, the last car of Lincoln MKZ will be off-line at the Ford Emosio plant in Sonora, Mexico, on July 21, and the plant also produces the Ford Fusion, which is equivalent to the same production line, that is, the two models will be discontinued together. After the suspension of production, the plant will put into the Ford Bronco Sport model, and whether there is a successor to the two discontinued models has not been announced.

Lincoln MKZ is an entry-level luxury car popular with Lincoln brand in the United States. It has always won a good reputation for its round appearance, spacious space and comfortable ride. But the car doesn't have a long history. In 2006, Lincoln named his new model after the acronym MKZ, in which "MK" stands for "Mark" and the letter "Z" pays homage to Zephyr, a classic car in Lincoln's history.

The first-generation model was launched in 2006 and stopped production in 2013; the second-generation model was launched in 2013, developed based on Ford's CD4 platform, and introduced into China in 2015 to compete with the domestic market as a second-tier luxury brand.

Due to the brand effect and replacement speed of the model in the domestic market, it has not achieved good market performance in the domestic market. After all, for Lincoln, Ford paid very little attention to the Chinese market, lacked a clear luxury brand attribute, and the current MKZ model has not been replaced since it was introduced into China.

With the suspension of production of Lincoln MKZ, it means that in the future, only mainland models will be left in the car market of the brand, and these two models will be imported into the domestic market, and the overseas market MKZ will be discontinued, and the domestic market will not be able to sell. It is worth noting that in order to reduce its product line, Ford will continue to cut more cars in the future in addition to stopping production of Fusion (domestic version Mondeo) and Lincoln MKZ on the same platform, while Lincoln Continental will also stop production at the end of the current generation and turn to focus on SUV models in the future.

Judging from the performance of the global market in recent years, the market of the SUV model is increasing, and the share of the car market is decreasing, whether in the United States of Ford's home market or in China, its main market. According to Lincoln's 2019 sales figures, cumulative sales in China totaled 50509 vehicles, down 13.6 percent from a year earlier. And from the perspective of specific model performance, Lincoln SUV product market performance is better, flagship SUV model navigator, MKC and navigator all perform better. Compared with the car market share is also relatively low, which is why Ford wants to focus on the SUV market.

However, as Lincoln's cars still account for 1/3 of Lincoln's brand performance in the North American market, the total cancellation of cars may cause negative sentiment among dealers.

Although Lincoln imported cars are sold in the domestic market, their performance to Changan Ford and Lincoln brands is not obvious, not only because the price is relatively high because of imports, but also because its luxury attribute is located in the domestic performance is mediocre. And with the introduction of more domestic Lincoln models by Changan Ford, the proportion of imported models will gradually decrease.

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