When is it the right time for a member of the Big Three add another automobile brand? Back in the nineties, it seems like they all had more brands than you could shake a stick at from Plymouth to Pontiac even though the cars were, in many cases, hard to tell apart. However, today I think I see a case where reviving a long-dead brand might be worth it.
Hear me out: Ford should bring back Mercury as an all-electric nameplate and offer a series of exclusive product. In that mix would be a subcompact EV built with the most cost-effective current methods and take inspiration from a concept car of nearly half a century ago.
I know it sounds crazy, but how is that any different from the other things I present on a weekly basis?
We Gonna Rock Down To..
If I said to you that I just got back from Chick-Fil-A, it’s understood that red meat was not part of my lunch. At the same time, telling the valet to go get your Rivian, Tesla, or Lucid will let the people next to you know that you’re an all-in adopter of the EV lifestyle. There’s something about a brand devoted to a certain technology that adds a certain cachet and even upscale feel that you won’t get from buying an electric car at a place that mainly sells gas-powered cars.
What’s worse is the inevitable comparisons that you’ll get when offering an EV at a place like a Ford dealership. People might not directly compare a Rivian to an F-150, but I can promise you that an F-150 Lightning parked next to a less-expensive (or better equipped) gasoline-powered big Ford pickup on the same showroom floor will almost demand such a side-by-side analysis.
Based on recent sales figures, the Lightning just ain’t doing so hot in that comparison.
Also, you’re all probably well aware of the stories about taking identical mass-produced products and putting them in very different environments with vastly divergent price points. The Dollar General-based one will be given a price tag a fraction of the cost of exactly the same thing placed in a Lord & Taylor, yet both will sell with neither buyer thinking they’re getting a deal or being fleeced. As a consumer product, cars are the same.
For years, Lincoln-Mercury dealerships sold what were essentially the same products offered at more ubiquitous Ford stores; often, they were sold at a premium. You know what? People didn’t mind, since the vestigial add-ons somehow made them seem more upscale, and the Lincoln-Mercury dealership experience was often far better than at the lower-level stores. So that’s why people purchased Pintos with funny chrome grilles on them: the infamous Mercury Bobcat.
All of this speaks to the advantages of an all-electric Mercury dealer, but there’s an even bigger reason to do it. I’m sure most Ford dealerships have a sales consultant that fully understands the ins and outs of the EVs on offer; on our last car purchase, we met with The Electric Gu,y who really helped to sell us on the plug-in hybrid we bought when nobody else at the place could really answer all our questions. With a Mercury EV store, the sales consultants and service representatives would theoretically all have more knowledge about electric products since it’s not just a small fraction of the cars that they sell and work on.
Come on, “Mercury” is a great name for an electric car brand! Plus, some of our favorite Mercury products had very-EV-like “light bar” front ends! We can (and will) come up with some more upmarket EV Mercury products later in this article, but how could we make a cost-effective but still somewhat upmarket-looking product to fill in the lower end of the electric market that none of the other “boutique” brands seem to be able to fill? Well, very few ideas are totally new; the same challenges we face today in the automotive market existed fifty years ago. Unfortunately, with many of these concepts, there wasn’t the technology or know-how back then to make it work effectively. Today, it might be a different story.
Toys In The Attic
Somehow, toys that we had as kids pointed the way to different automotive solutions that we later learned couldn’t really be done in an actual vehicle; or so we thought. One toy that appeared after my childhood was a modular car system where you could use a series of wood and plastic parts to create all sorts of vehicles, from a sports car to a pickup truck or an SUV.
We can’t forget Candylab toys!
Back in 1982, Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Ital Design came up with a vehicular concept that was very similar to this innovative child’s plaything.
Dubbed the Capsula, the idea was to create a nearly flat, low-profile base that featured the engine, all mechanicals, and low cargo bins upon which you could build whatever type of vehicle you wanted to, from a four-passenger gull-winged minivan to a tow truck or a small cargo van.
I’ve seen some sites state that with a screwdriver or wrench, you could “change out your car in minutes” though I very seriously doubt that was possible. Also, you know how you get that EEEKAHEEEKAEEKAH from loose trim pieces in your 100,000-mile car? I would imagine a vehicle made of a bunch of bolted-together body parts could make a downright symphony of such noises with accompanying wind and water leaks.
Still, this concept was crying out for the electric “skateboard” chassis that is commonplace today, so it’s easy to see why the Capsula is still talked about today as an idea whose time might be arriving.
How about years ago, when you built plastic car models, getting woozy from the scent of the glue that stuck to your fingers? In many cases, the “chassis” of the scale car was one big, molded piece of plastic that included the frame, floor pan, and other components. You learned later in life that in real cars, those were in fact an assembly of dozens of parts and not one big piece, since there’s no way that you could stamp out anything that large.
That’s not the case today. Manufacturers are talking about “gigacasting”, the ability to form large and rather complex forms out of steel. This technology will reportedly reduce assembly time and cost exponentially on future cars.
We’ll incorporate both of these ideas on our new little Mercury EV, but with all of this modular stuff, will it end up looking like a Fiat Multipla mated with a Harlequin VW Golf? Have no fear: we’re actually going to make it feel more retro than future-shock.
Boxy Is Foxy, Like A Fox Body
As with the sub-$30,000 sort-of-truck that I suggested for Ford a few weeks back, the Bobcat would be a little larger than a Mini Cooper and available in a host of different body styles that shared many parts for the sake of economy. The front and rear gigacastings would be connected by two different-length battery packs to give short and long wheelbase options of pickup trucks and SUVs.
The overall look would be throwback style and ultra boxy to counter the ultra-swoopy designs of most crossover SUVs with overwrought “lighting signatures” and excessive body detailing. Honestly, the Rivian and Teslas seem to stand out due to their lack of such ornamentation. The rectilinear Range Rover-style aesthetic would naturally have the old Mercury “light bar” front end from their late eighties/early nineties Sable heyday. Eighties-looking wheels, too!
The back would have a similar full-width taillight.
You’ve got body styles-o-plenty with the Bobcat in either short or long wheelbase formats. Slate style pickups! Convertibles!
Like the Ital Capsula proposed, such different body styles could be done for minimal tooling cost, and the sky would be the limit for the number of different versions you could do. Naturally, the body parts would be robot-welded together and mechanically fastened as the Capsula intended. Honestly, the whole “modular” car wet dream that designers had never really found buyer acceptance, as things such as the 1987 Pulsar NX proved (the available wagon back barely lasted a year). Nobody really wants to keep a backyard full of parts to change their pickup to an SUV overnight, thank you. Too bad: I’m one of those design weenies who thought it was a cool concept.
Inside would be equally clean with what looks like a cantilevered armrest and screen console that sort of follows the shape of the Mercury logo (there would be supports coming out of the dash, so it wouldn’t actually be cantilevered). I like the idea of an armrest to steady your hand as you operate the screen. “Gear” selector buttons on the side of the screen housing face the driver.
Just a very clean and basic design that still appears more finished than Tesla products.
Cougars And Bobcats, Oh My: The Initial Model Lineup
We don’t want to have a new Mercury EV dealership with just one car on offer, do we? If the Bobcat will be our all-new entry level electric product, we can populate the other categories with unique vehicles that wouldn’t require a clean sheet of paper approach. However, these would be more than just space fillers like the 1990 Lexus ES 350 or Infiniti M30 was; we’d offer some products the electric market is looking for.
Mercury Cougar
What it is:
I presented this a while back: an EV rear-drive coupe and convertible that would be a tribute to what might be everyone’s favorite car to wear the Name Of The Cat: a 1969 XR7 convertible as seen driven by the lovely Diana Rigg in the James Bond outing On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
We’d have a hardtop as well.
Hey, today we can do sequential rear turn signals without all of the complexity required for the original.
What it really is:
It’s a Mustang, of course. The Mustang was not developed to be an EV, but there’s no reason you couldn’t put batteries up front where the engine was (but closer to the firewall for better weight distribution). It wouldn’t be ideal, but it also wouldn’t be impossible.
Why it might work:
The Cougar was never meant to be a traditional muscle car like the Charger, as even the Cobra Jet XR7 was a bit of an iron fist in a velvet glove. As a convertible, it would offer a body style the slow-selling EV Charger does not, and it would embrace the quiet operation and lack the dumb fake motor sounds nobody seemed to go for anyway.
Mercury Montego (two and three row)
What it is:
Another Mercury would be a mid-sized SUV with an optional third row to bring another much-requested seven-passenger EV to the market.
What it really is:
This would merely be a stretched Mustang Mach-E with a more upright back end.
Why it might work:
That Mach-E is an excellent, underrated product, so why not build off of it? It would be sacrilege to make a three-row ‘Stang but a Mercury? No problem. If you find the Rivian too large, the Tesla Model X too expensive, and other EVs too small, the Montego could be your family car.
Mercury Montclair
What it is:
A somewhat luxury oriented EV full-sized pickup. If a Cybertruck is too ugly for your tastes and you’d rather have something other than a Rivian, the Montclair could be for you.
What it really is:
A certain excellent Ford full-sized EV pickup (the Lightning) that has sadly lit the market on fire like a box of wet matches.
Why it might work:
Ford’s gamble to pitch the F-150 Lightning as a sort-of-work-truck adjacent product to the gasoline version has not panned out as expected. Marketing this thing more like the Rivian or Cybertruck as a sort of premium, upscale product wouldn’t hurt to try.
Only At The Sign Of The Cat (Growl)
I’m seeing a Mercury “boutique” inside selected Ford stores to start out if needed. Note how the shape picks up on the Mercury logo. There are stools to sit down and play with fabrics and color swatches, plus merchandise like T-shirts (free with a test drive?) to make it a different kind of car shopping experience:
However, the main goal would be to create standalone Mercury stores with the same kind of feel as a Tesla showroom inside.
Many people entering an early Saturn dealership had no idea they were a GM brand; Mercury would also seem worlds apart from a Ford store.
There Really Was McSpaghetti By The Way
Did the Big Three get off on the wrong foot with EVs? I think so, and I don’t think it’s too late for them to attempt a sort of do-over. The Mercury brand might be a great way for Ford to launch an affordable but still premium-feeling electric product in a manner to appeal to people accustomed to the Tesla or Rivian experience.
There’s a reason one can’t buy McTacos, or a Beef-Fil-A. You can’t be all things to all people, and maybe it’s time car companies learned that as well.
No one should bring back any brands until they figure out how to be better at their core competency; building cars. Brands are marketing. We don’t need more marketing spend on cars, we need more engineering spend.
I could see them bringing back “Mercury” as a trim level, like Titanium
Another really well thought out article! Thanks Bishop!
Southern rust free car, damn you must have not been that far south. That looks horrible. hahah
But good job fixing that car.
I have three neighbors with cars that have been sitting in their driveways since they moved in. They “look” in good shape, I just don’t understand why they don’t fix them. All them have 2-3 other running cars they use.
You have put more thought into this than anyone at FMC.