Lincoln is following in the footsteps of Ford, its parent company, with plans to offer only hybrid and electric vehicles by 2030. The company will reveal its first EV in 2022, and expects that electric cars will make up half of its sales by 2025. Interestingly, Lincoln also plans to add Android Auto and hands-free driving to future vehicles.
While Lincoln hasn’t revealed much about its upcoming EV, it could look a lot like the concept Zephyr car that Lincoln showed off in April. Zephyr features a large display that spans its dashboard, sort of like the Mercedes “Hyperscreen,” plus an Android-powered “Constellation” UI.
But Lincoln says that its cars won’t run Android Auto until 2023, the same year that Android will arrive on most Ford vehicles. And while the company hasn’t offered a timeline for self-driving support, it seems that Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving tech will arrive in Lincoln cars sometime in the coming years. In order to protect Lincoln’s premium image, it will rebrand BlueCruise as ActiveGlide in its cars.
One oddity in Lincoln’s recent announcements is the mention of “digital scenting techniques.” Essentially, Lincoln wants to know how smell can impact the mood and experience of drivers or passengers. It isn’t clear how this technology works, though the use of “digital” implies something more complicated than those little Febreze clips.
In its press release, Lincoln mentions that it wants to release four new EVs, though it isn’t clear if all of these cars will debut in 2022. Either way, those who are interested in buying a Lincoln may want to wait a few years—even if you don’t want an EV, other cars in the company’s lineup will gain features like Android Auto in the near future.
