2020 Aviator Grand Touring, The New Hot Rod Lincoln

With four newly redesigned utility vehicles hitting the road so far in 2019, Ford is so far staying true to its 2018 promise to offer an electrified powertrain option in every new SUV going forward. Hot on the heels of its more mainstream Ford sibling, the Explorer, the 2020 Lincoln Aviator is also offered with the new modular hybrid transmission (MHT) system. Unlike the Ford, Lincoln’s offering has a substantially larger battery and a plug in its Grand Touring trim level.

The very fact that Lincoln has opted to badge the electrified Aviator as Grand Touring rather then hybrid, plug-in hybrid or some other branding that evoques green credentials should tell us something about this vehicle. This is not the Lincoln for hypermilers but is in fact the new hot rod Lincoln.

With a combined output of 494-hp and 630 lb-ft of torque from its twin turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 and 75-kW electric motor, the Aviator Grand Touring is the most powerful production Lincoln ever. It’s 13.6-kWh lithium ion battery pack will give it the ability to roughly 18 miles on electricity alone, but it’s the total package that makes this one interesting.

While Cadillac is the American brand that has actively set its sights on the likes Mercedes-AMG, BMW M and Audi RS for the past 15 years, Lincoln has stealthily snuck up on them. There is nothing overtly sporting about the Aviator Grand Touring or its gas-only siblings. In fact, in every respect it continues the quiet flight theme of the brand. The Aviator is exceptionally quiet and smooth.

The available air spring suspension and dynamic dampers allow the Aviator to glide down the road with exceptional body control even over some of the more uneven pavement to found in northern California’s wine country. While the main roads in the area tend to be fairly smooth, once you get into the mountains, things change for the worse, especially in the areas that have scarred by fires and landslides in recent years.

Through the twists of an area like Sage Canyon, you don’t want an overly stiff setup that upsets the vehicle. The Aviator is very well balanced thanks to a short-long-arm front suspension (replacing the Explorer’s lower cost struts) and integral link rear similar in layout to the Mustang.

The MHT is based around the core of the new 10-speed automatic transmission that Ford co-developed with General Motors. The conventional 10-speed is now used in most of Ford and GM’s longitudinal powertrain vehicles ranging from Mustang and Camaro to the full-sized Silverado and F-150 pickups as well as the base Aviator.

The variant that goes into the hybrid models has a case that is 180-mm longer than the conventional version and a correspondingly shorter driveshaft. This provides space to package an electric machine between the torque converter and transmission input. In the Explorer hybrid, this is a 37-kW motor while the Aviator bumps this to a larger 75-kW electric machine. That’s sufficient to propel the 5,700-pound Grand Touring model on electricity alone, albeit at a relatively leisurely pace.

Ford’s rear-drive unibody architecture was designed with electrification in mind space has been set aside for batteries under the floor to the right of the driveshaft. To the left is the fuel tank. If at some point Lincoln opted to build a battery electric version, eliminating the fuel tank and mechanical driveline would probably leave sufficient space for a battery pack with adequate range (at least 200 miles) but there are no currently announced plans. One big advantage of the battery location is that no cargo space is sacrificed and the Aviator Grand Touring still carries a spare tire onboard.

The Aviator has a 13.6-kWh liquid cooled lithium ion battery. Lincoln officials decline to specify who the battery supplier is, but acknowledge that it contains 96 pouch type cells. Given that LG Chem is currently the only major supplier of pouch cells, it’s reasonable to assume that they are the vendor for the Aviator. Unlike the battery packs for the PHEV Fusion and C-Max which Ford assembled at a plant in Rawsonville, Mich., the Aviator cell supplier is providing complete pack assemblies.

Given the size of the battery, Lincoln hasn’t included any DC fast charge or wireless capability in the Aviator, choosing instead to rely on 240-V level 2 charging. A full charge from a typical 6.6-7.2-kW charger should take 1.5-2 hours. As this article is being written, the EPA still has completed processing the certification for the PHEV Aviator or the Explorer hybrid so no official range or fuel economy numbers are available.

When the Aviator was unveiled at last November’s LA Auto Show, Lincoln chief engineer John Davis indicated that his team had aimed for a 50-km (31-mile) electric range to achieve thresholds for certain tax incentives in the Chinese market. However, those thresholds are based on the very optimistic NEDC test procedure. Here in its home market, the Aviator Grand Touring is expected to have a range of about 18 miles. That should be adequate for a lot of daily commuting, but it certainly won’t satisfy those interested in an alternative to a Tesla Model X or even an Audi e-Tron.

The crowd that will be satisfied are those looking for an exceptionally quick and refined three-row SUV. We drove the Aviator Grand Touring on mix highway, suburban and twisting mountain roads more amenable to a Miata than a typical SUV. Despite its prodigious mass, the addition of 25% more power and 50% more torque moves the Aviator with authority. Even climbing a mountain pass, when we encountered a passing zone that provided an extra lane, a squeeze of the throttle shot the Lincoln past whatever was holding us up.

The Aviator has a range of drive modes available including conserve (aka eco), excite (sport), normal, slippery and deep conditions that make adjustments to throttle, steering, shift points and slip thresholds for the stability control. The Grand Touring adds two extra modes, Pure EV and Preserve EV. Pure forces the powertrain into electric-only mode which is handy for cruising through the neighborhood or for short commutes in the city. With only 100-hp on tap from the motor, acceleration is considerably less lively than in other modes, but it is adequate.

The Preserve EV mode will actually use the engine and motor to recharge the battery for use at a later time. It’s not the most efficient mode, but if you know you want electric capability later, such as in a city center, this will bring the battery up to a 75% state of charge. The nice thing about this mode is that it manages the charging rate in order to preserve full performance. If you hammer the go pedal, charging will be suspended and you will have access to the full 494-hp and 630 lb-ft of torque until you back off.

Regardless of what mode the Aviator is in, the control feels totally seamless. We set out on an approximately 100 mile drive with about 75% battery charge and since this vehicle seems to encourage a lively style of driving, we took advantage of it. Accelerating uphill out of tight corners in excite mode depletes the battery faster than more sedate commuting. Preserve had no notable impact on the acceleration capability and put about half the battery charge back in about 50 miles.

If you’re looking for a vehicle that can carry up to seven people with minimal energy consumption, the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid is probably your best bet. But if you want something with similar seating capacity that really flies quietly, the 2020 Lincoln Aviator Grand Touring will definitely tour grandly.