Lincoln loosens EV charger requirement for dealers

Lincoln is removing a requirement that dealers offer around-the-clock electric vehicle charging to the public as part of its EV certification program.

Executives, including the brand's new president, Dianne Craig, announced the change Saturday at the make meeting.

Instead of offering charging 24/7 — prohibited by some state laws necessitating that staff be present if the public is on the premises — Lincoln said it now will require dealers to operate the stations from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, or essentially only during business hours.

"We've been flexible to the feedback we've gotten from our dealers," Craig told Automotive News.

The opt-in window for the program, which requires dealers to invest as much as $900,000 to sell future EVs, already has closed, and Craig said Lincoln does not plan to reopen it following the change. The next opportunity to enroll is scheduled to be in 2026. Lincoln has said 356 dealers out of about 600 agreed to the program's standards.

"We'd have to make more of a sizable change before we'd consider reopening that up," Craig said, adding the brand is open to further dialogue and additional adjustments to the program if necessary.

Chris Poulos, chairman of the Lincoln National Dealer Council, said the meeting was positive, and he's pleased the brand has agreed to the program change.

"It's a fair compromise," he said.

Craig and other executives discussed a desire to boost Lincoln's customer service experience and try to reclaim the two-tenths of a point of market share it lost last year through increased production.

"The dealers have all done an amazing job adopting to this environment we've been in with such constrained production, and we certainly expect it to be better in '23," Craig said. "The profitability for Lincoln dealers right now is very, very good."