As expected, Ford officially announced today that it will end production of Mercury vehicles in the fourth quarter of this year in order to expand and enhance its Lincoln brand lineup with seven all-new or significantly refreshed vehicles in the next four years. It appears that FoMoCo wants to do the same thing it did with the Ford brand during the past few years: tremendous progress on profitably growing. For those who don´t know, the Mercury brand was created as a premium offering to Ford but the increase of the American brand accelerated the migration for many customers. The Mercury sales dropped significantly! The majority of current are to fleet buyers and customers purchasing through employee, retiree and friends and family discounts.
FoMoCo has a 16% market share in the U.S. and Mercury accounts only 0.8% while Ford brand has increased market share by 2.2 percentage points so far this year. Due to the poor sales, today there are no stand-alone Mercury dealerships in North America. Ford has notified Mercury dealers of the decision and provided details of a financial package that includes payment in exchange for resigning the franchise. Regarding Lincoln, the future of this brand is building from a strong base that includes the all-new flagship MKS large sedan, the all-new MKT seven-passenger crossover and a significantly refreshed MKZ mid-size sedan all now in showrooms. Later this year, the MKZ Hybrid will reach showrooms! Plans for Lincoln include firm's first-ever C-segment vehicle, new powertrains, an all-new V6 engine, EcoBoost engines available in all vehicles and fuel economy leadership with each new vehicle.
