Ford Mondeo in limbo

The Blue Oval’s flagship luxury car in Europe and Australia, the Ford Mondeo, will live on until the mid-2020s but beyond that its future is unknown.

According to Autocar, a facelifted version of the existing Mondeo will be released later this year in Europe, extending the current mid-sizer’s lifespan for a further five years or so.

The revised Mondeo will reportedly feature updated exterior styling and a new dashboard including a ‘floating’ touch-screen like those seen in the upcoming new Focus and latest Fiesta not sold here.

There will also be more safety equipment and a new 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine, codenamed Panther and related to the EcoBlue engine that powers the 2019 Ranger and Everest.

However, given Ford’s recent announcement it will soon kill off its entire passenger car range except for the Mustang and Focus Active crossover in North America, the Mondeo's US cousin – the Fusion -- will be axed by 2020.

That means Ford of Europe will be solely responsible for developing a future Mondeo – if one is forthcoming at all.

If a fifth-generation Mondeo does eventuate, speculation is it could be based on a stretched and widened version of the C2 platform that underpins the latest Focus.

Autocar says a decision on the next-generation Mondeo will need to be made by 2022, by which time sales could make it unviable. At this stage projected annual Mondeo volume in Europe is just 60,000 units – well down on the 350,000 vehicles sold across Europe in 1993.

Similarly in Australia, Ford sold less than 3000 Mondeo hatches and wagons last year (down more than five per cent on 2016), in a mainstream mid-size car segment that shrank by almost 20 per cent, to just over 41,000 units.

Ford Australia has committed to releasing a full range of new Focus models, including hatch, sedan, wagon and all-new Active crossover body styles.

Even if a new Mondeo emerges from Europe, there’s no guarantee a business case could be made to position it above the new Focus line-up in Australia.

As in North America, that could leave the Focus and Mustang as Ford’s only passenger models available in Australia, plus the next year’s new Fiesta ST hot hatch.

Ford’s fourth-generation Mondeo was launched here in April 2015 and then upgraded in April last year, but expected ST and hybrid versions have so far not appeared.

To help combat next month’s Mazda6 facelift – as well as mainstream mid-sizers like the imported Holden Commodore and Toyota Camry, plus the Hyundai i40 and Sonata, Kia Optima, Subaru Liberty, Skoda Octavia and Volkswagen Passat and Arteon – Ford Australia is expected to launch the Mondeo ST-Line in July.