The Lincoln Corsair is a small luxury SUV that is comfortable and has many features. It's designed for people who want a nice vehicle that feels premium.
The Lincoln Navigator is a big, fancy SUV that offers a lot of space and luxury features. It's designed for comfort and is great for families or anyone who wants a high-end vehicle.
The Lincoln Nautilus is a fancy SUV that feels really nice to drive and ride in. It's known for being comfortable and having lots of cool features, which is why people like talking about it when they discuss luxury cars.
The BMW iX3 is an electric version of BMW's popular SUV. It runs on electricity instead of gasoline, which is better for the environment and can save money on fuel.
Software defined vehicles are cars that use computer software to manage many of their features. This means they can be updated and improved even after you buy them, similar to how apps on your phone work.
The tariff landscape is about the taxes that are added to cars brought into a country. These taxes can change how much it costs to buy cars from other places, affecting what companies decide to do.
Automotive cycles are the ups and downs in car sales and production that happen over time. They can change based on how the economy is doing or what people want in cars.
De-risking means finding ways to make sure a business doesn't face big problems in the future. For car companies, this could mean making different types of cars or using new technology to stay safe from changes in the market.
Ford is a famous car company from the United States that makes many types of vehicles, including trucks and sports cars. They are known for their popular models like the Ford F-150 truck.
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potential by visiting rayray.com slash spark dash AI. That's R-E-Y, R-E-Y dot com slash Spark
dash AI. Hey, it's daily drive executive producer Jake Nier. Thanks for joining me for this bonus
episode of the show. On this week's weekend drive episode, our own Michael Martinez mentioned his
recent interview with Lincoln president Joaquin Nuneo-Wailin about the brand's strategy for
2026. Lincoln's betting on growth this year, even though the brand just lost its entry-level
Corsair crossover, shrinking its U.S. lineup to just three name plates. Nuneo-Wailin told Mike
the brand grew sales 2% in 2025, despite headwinds, and he's pushing dealers to defy the odds and do
it again. If you missed that conversation, make sure to go check it out. That came out on Saturday,
but for now, here's a piece of Mike's interview with Lincoln chief Joaquin Nuneo-Wailin.
Wanted to talk product and again, I realize, you know, there's a lot you probably can't say,
but, you know, I think in the near term, there's a lot of concern right now, you know, given the
loss of Corsair, and I know there's still some that'll sell into the first part of this year,
but what would you say to dealers who might be concerned that, you know, in the near term,
they only have three products to sell? Yeah, I think so, you know, we, when I took this role,
it was right as the headwinds of tariffs and everything were really starting to take shape,
and we didn't think we'd have a year like we did in 24 at the beginning of 25,
and we ended up knocking it out of the park. I mean, we surpassed 25 with another year of
100,000 vehicle sales with all the headwinds we had in 2025. We ended up, you know, 2%
over that year. And so that mentality, you know, that like, let's just go win.
Things are going to happen in the auto industry, things are going to happen in 26,
that we have no idea about yet. Supply chain disruptions, whatever, you know, we can work
to de-risk, but things will happen. And so the starting point is just, you know, let's have
that same strong mentality of let's just go figure it out, and let's have another record year.
And it's going to be difficult, and there are certain headwinds this year that we'll sort through,
but I think first and foremost, we lean on the great product we have. And when you look how the
year ended, Navigator, we had a great launch. Navigator launching in 25, no hiccups. I mean,
we had a super launch, and that product has done really well. You know, I experienced a lot of
different vehicles, and then I personally like, I can't wait to get back into Navigator. Just
I love the way I feel in that vehicle. And Nautilus has done that too. And you'll see,
you know, as we lean into marketing here, the holiday wish list ad that we did with the little
entrepreneur in the hot cocoa stand, that was super well received. We had activations at the
retailers, that emotional connection to the brand and to the product, I think has done really well.
And so as we roll out things into 26, you'll see more of that product to emotional connection to
the Lincoln feeling and the elevated Lincoln aspect around things like people achieving their
dreams or having moments of epiphany. And I think that feeling and continuing to
help people make that connection will lead to stronger sales. You know, we'll work to do some
things where we can keep the product momentum going in light touches. And so, you know, things
around personalization and new trim levels and new themes for rejuvenate, like those things that we
can do relatively quickly and highlighting those. And so I think that will keep the momentum going.
And the great thing about the connection we have with the retailers and the council is
we've worked on a lot of plans for 26. And we had some really strong back and forth so that
once when we laid that out in October at our retailer meeting, I think going into the meeting,
there was a lot of worry. The team did an amazing job laying out the plan for 26.
To the point where there weren't that many questions coming out of the meeting and people
told us that they felt like they came in wondering what 26 was going to look like and came out
feeling very good that we have a strong plan. And so that momentum I think will carry us far.
And then, you know, my message to the retailers is, you know, we're in this together,
let's go win. Let's figure out what it takes to win again this year and just keep that mindset
going and the fast reaction to any headwinds we're going to see. We'll have, of course,
everywhere under the year. We'll lean on Nautilus and Navigator. These are amazing products that
keep getting awards and, you know, good reaction from things like even consumer reports. So
I just want to keep the momentum going and lean into the great product we have.
So do you think there is an opportunity to, you know, increase sales year over year in 2026?
Because I think, you know, the general consensus was, okay, they're losing, you know, Corsair
at some point when they run out, you know, probably going to be hard to top, you know,
a full year of having it last year. Yeah, on paper, you know, it says we're not going to, but
I'm pushing, I'm betting, you know, I'm working to not just take that as what will happen. So
we'll see how it will play out. It will be difficult with some lower volume on that side,
but we've got to figure out how to keep the momentum strong and make up for it in other ways.
Coming up, more from our own Michael Martinez's conversation with Lincoln president Joaquin
Nuneau-Wayland. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the car business from how vehicles
are sold and built to what happens inside the cabin. I'm going to be talking about what you're
doing with BMW with the iX3 that's coming out with Alexa Plus. I think that's a completely
different user experience. On this week's episode of the automotive news shift podcast,
AWS's Oscar Terumshu joins the show. He breaks down how automakers are using AI to compress
vehicle development timelines, what software defined vehicles could mean for how long people
keep their cars, and why the future may rely on a mix of in vehicle and cloud computing.
I'm Molly Boygon. Join me on shift, available this Sunday, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Big picture on the portfolio. What do you see moving forward? I assume long term,
it's not just going to be three products, but can you give a sense into what type of products
might work best with the brand and where you want to take it?
Yeah, I can't get into too many specifics yet, but we continue. The small entry,
luxury space is something that is very important, so stay tuned there. Then leaning
into where we have strengths, obviously the navigator is the strength and continuing the
momentum in that space. Then we wanted to take the brand in a little more emotional and exciting
direction, but we'll lay out what that looks like in the future. I can't talk about it quite yet.
Okay. Again, I'm wondering high level from a philosophical standpoint almost. Given the
success you've had with Nautilus since the redesign and importing it, I'm wondering would you be open
to importing additional vehicles to the US or given the current tariff landscape,
does it prohibit that at least for the next few years?
I think that we've got to be careful how we do things. It's hard to predict in automotive cycles
how these things play out with macroeconomics. Always open to figuring out the best way to
do things and keep not only the network healthy, but future growth strategies, but also understanding
how in the decisions we make day in and day out for the future, how do we always keep a mind
toward de-risking things so that there isn't that huge headwind shift should something change
faster than an automotive cycle. I guess staying open, but trying to de-risk the future as much
as possible as well. The UEV platform, obviously for the Ford brand, a lot of talk about that,
a lot of investment and focus on the future there. They say consistently it can underpin a
number of models. Is there anything you can say about the UEV platform as it relates to Lincoln?
Nothing I can say yet, but our strategy is to use the best of the platforms we have as an
enterprise, figure out how to get the right luxury bandwidth and the right very differentiated luxury
Lincoln point of view into the designs and the execution. If that can align and it makes sense,
then it'd be very interesting for us to for Lincoln to play there and continually figuring out how
to have multi-energy strategy going forward is also a big deal. We'll see how that one comes
together, but nothing to say yet. Our own Michael Martinez, who covers Ford in the UAW for Automotive
News, spoke with Lincoln President Joaquin Nuneo-Wailin. Thanks for listening to this bonus
episode of Daily Drive. We'll be back on Monday with a brand new full episode of the show.
About this episode
Lincoln President Joaquin Nuño-Whelan discusses the brand's growth strategy for 2026, emphasizing resilience despite losing the Corsair crossover. He highlights a 2% sales increase in 2025 and encourages dealers to maintain a positive outlook. Nuño-Whelan shares insights on the success of the Navigator and Nautilus, the importance of emotional connections in marketing, and plans for product personalization. He hints at future product expansions while addressing concerns about tariffs and supply chain challenges, aiming for continued momentum in sales.
Lincoln President Joaquin Nuño-Whelan talks about the brand’s plan to grow sales in 2026 despite losing the Corsair crossover, future product direction and navigating tariff uncertainty.
