2021 Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring – Is This One Grand Enough?

Back in March of 2018, Ford held a background briefing in Dearborn where it announced that going forward, all of its redesigned utility vehicles would have an electrified powertrain option. While that briefing wasn’t explicitly discussing Lincoln products, the presumption was that the company’s premium brand was included in that new strategy. Last spring when Lincoln took the wraps off its second generation compact crossover, now badged as Corsair, it came only with a pair of gasoline fueled turbocharged four cylinder engines. But executives acknowledged on background that a plug-in hybrid was on the way and this week we are seeing the Corsair Grand Touring ahead of the Los Angeles auto show. 

The Corsair Grand Touring follows on the heels of the larger three-row Aviator Grand Touring but the product strategy is a bit different this time. In the automotive world, a grand tourer is a machine with a blend of luxury and performance that makes it well suited to high-speed long distance trips. The advent of the Aviator Grand Touring brought a new kind of electrified vehicle to Lincoln, melding traditional Lincoln opulence with the most powerful production Lincoln propulsion system in the brand’s history.

Rather than just use the plug-in hybrid powertrain just to maximize fuel efficiency, Lincoln paired a 76-kW electric motor and a large lithium ion battery with a twin-turbocharged V6 to deliver performance not seen in a Lincoln in many years. With 496-hp and 670 lb-ft of torque, the Aviator Grand Touring provides immense thrust for quickly completing passes on winding two-lane roads and covering long distances in short time spans. 

The smaller Corsair Grand Touring doesn’t quite bring that same idea to its smaller size class. Many of us expected Lincoln to follow a similar path with the Corsair, pairing one of the turbocharged engines with the same hybrid drive unit. The Escape PHEV is only offered with front wheel drive because the placement of the battery under the rear seat precludes the installation of a drive shaft to the rear. The Corsair addresses that with a rear-mounted electric motor for on-demand all-wheel-drive. 

If Lincoln had utilized the 250-hp 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder with the front hybrid drive unit and the rear motor, it could have achieved somewhere in the neighborhood of 350-hp or more. Instead, the Corsair retains the same naturally aspirated 2.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine from the Escape along with the rear motor for a total of 266-hp. That’s a significant step up from the 209-hp of the Escape PHEV. 

But with the addition of a 14.4-kWh battery that likely weighs somewhere in the neighborhood 250-300 lbs, even the 110 lb-ft of torque from that rear motor is likely to put the Corsair Grand Touring roughly on a par with the 295-hp 2.3-liter turbo that is currently the top engine offering. 

Of course, what the turbocharged Corsairs can’t do is run silently and gasoline-free. While finally certification hasn’t been done yet, Lincoln expects the Grand Touring to be able to go about 25 miles on a full charge of the battery. Owners will be able to do much of their daily commuting emissions-free. 

Like the Aviator Grand Touring, the Corsair gets some subtle visual distinctions. It has the same unique grille design with the Lincoln star finished in a color dubbed Spirit Blue. Lincoln design director Kemal Curic explained that this particular shade was replicated from the 1937 Lincoln V12. It also appears in the letters on the fender badge and is used exclusively on electrified Lincolns. 

Other unique touches to this variant are body colored wheel arch cladding which Curic said helps to visually close the gap between the wheels and the arches. Other Corsairs have this part finished in black. Gloss black does however appear on the lower front fascia and rocker panel trim in place of chrome, again visually (if not physically) lowering the body. The changes are subtle but look good and have the desired impact. 

The big question comes back to the choice of propulsion configuration. It’s not that there is anything inherently wrong with using a plug-in hybrid system that is more optimized for fuel efficiency and electric driving range than for adding incremental performance. But the question is will Lincoln customers be interested in that? Does it also fit with the Grand Touring label?

Lincoln marketing director Michael Sprague described the Corsair as being targeted at younger millennial buyers looking to move up to a premium product. He indicated that those customers might not be as interested in a higher performance version of something like the Corsair. Once the Corsair Grand Touring goes on sale next summer we’ll have a better idea if that is indeed the case. 

However, it seems like someone spending what will probably be at least $45,000 on a compact crossover will likely want a bit more bang for their buck. If this version is as quick as the 2.3 turbo, it won’t be slow by any means and perhaps that isn’t really the problem here. If the gas only models are anything to go by, the plug-in hybrid Corsair will be a lovely vehicle to spend time in. It’s just that without a performance boost, maybe it should have a suffix other than grand touring with that name reserved for something just a bit grander.