2024 Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring

We first drove the Lincoln Corsair back in 2020 as a Reserve AWD model and really liked it. Based on the Ford Escape's chassis, the 2024 Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring was refreshed last model year with some refinements similar to what we just saw on its sister vehicle. The grille gets larger, headlights are a bit more streamlined, and the interior gets Sync 4 along with some new leather colour choices. Pricing has gone up by a bit for this year but our $80k test model was only about $600 more than the 2023.

The Grand Touring is Lincoln's fancy way of saying this is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Lincoln Canada doesn't advertise the range for this vehicle on their website, but in ideal conditions this vehicle could get around 50 kms of fully electric driving. On our testing we managed around 38 kms before the gas engine kicked in, with average outdoor temperatures around 4ºC during our week. One major mechanical difference between the Escape PHEV and this Corsair is AWD. The Escape PHEV is only available in front-wheel drive, but given this is a luxury-class vehicle AWD is a must.

Our test vehicle came about as fully loaded as possible, equipped with the 302A package, our vehicle gets Lincoln BlueCruise 1.2, a 14-speaker Revel audio system, colour HUD, auto air purifier, and the rest of the features found on the Corsair. Creature comforts such as heated and ventilated front seats with massage, heated outboard rear seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, panoramic sunroof, ambient lighting, navigation, 360º cameras, and much more. The Corsair also has a full suite of enhanced safety technology such as adaptive cruise control, lane centring, blind spot monitoring, park assist, and emergency automatic forward braking. There aren't any enhanced safety features found in this segment that are missing on the Lincoln.

Overall comfort is great on this vehicle. The 24-way adjustment Perfect Position seats are firm and supportive with plenty of adjustment available. Some may say too much adjustment, but others will appreciate the precision they can adjust their seats to truly find the perfect seating position. Our Ebony/Eternal Red leather option is one of 4 colour choices for this vehicle. Paired with the Ceramic Pearl paint, a $950 option, it looks a lot more premium than the MKC it replaced years ago. You could forego the paint and the $1,750 20" machined aluminium black finish rims to save some cost, and realistically the 301A package is more than enough too.

The one point of frustration with this car ultimahtely comes at the expense of the plug-in hybrid system, and is the main theme of the video we filmed on this 2024 Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring. It's a good SUV, with plenty of luxury features customers want at a competitive price point. The overall power from the 2.5L Atkinson Cycle 4 cylinder was acceptable, and the 50 ish kms from the 14.4 kWh li-ion battery was also in line with other compact luxury vehicles in this class. The lack of EV data and the slow charging rates were our major issues. The driver cluster doesn't display a proper charge %, but the owners manual leads you to believe a 'Power' display is available under the dual gauge mode. We couldn't activate this feature, and owners on a popular Lincoln enthusiasts' forum weren't able to activate this screen either.

Much like the Mustang Mach-E and Ford F-150 Lightning we've driven previously, this Lincoln Corsair has limited EV data in the infotainment system. There are no options to change the charging parameters, nor does it have up-to-date charging stations available through the infotainment system. Our testing also concludes that the Lincoln Corsair has a maximum charge rate of 15A or 3.6 kW, half the standard charge rate from other vehicles we've tested. This means the battery will take approximately 4 hours to charge at a 240V outlet, and 12 hours at a 120V outlet. This may not be a deal breaker, as Lincoln may be taking the approach of selling hassle-free vehicles to people who are on the fence about the electric future.

We understand that everyone is different and has different needs out of their vehicles. For us, we do a lot of in-town driving with our PHEVs. Having a car that takes twice as long to charge as others is a deal breaker for us, as it limits our overall fuel savings. It's not like the Corsair is any cheaper than the competition, so Ford can't argue that a 15A on-board charger is significantly cheaper as those savings don't appear to be passed along to consumers. Most people do charge or would charge their vehicles overnight, so some may not be worried about the extra time as they'd be sleeping anyway. Either way we'd have appreciated a full-speed charger on this vehicle.

To find out more about the 2024 Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring along with our driving impressions, you can check out our full tour and review on this vehicle over on YouTube.