SHANGHAI MOTOR SHOW: Ford Evos to replace Mondeo?

Meet the Ford Evos – an all-new crossover-style family car that blurs the lines between SUV and wagon.

Launched at the 2021 Shanghai motor show in China, the 2021 Ford Evos will initially be built in China to satisfy demand in the world’s biggest car market, with the development team having leveraged “Ford’s global product development expertise” to create the new vehicle.

This is believed to have included Ford’s Melbourne-based Asia Pacific Product Development Centre, and early reports suggest that momentum is already building for the all-new Ford Evos to be a replacement for the Ford Mondeo in Europe – and possibly Australia.

That’s because Ford Motor Co confirmed recently that the Mondeo would be axed in 2022 after a 29-year tenure, and has made no secret of the fact that it sees its future in pick-up trucks and SUVs.

Ford Australia and New Zealand’s communications director, Matt Moran, told carsales there were no plans for a local introduction at this stage, but he didn’t completely shut the door on the idea, stating: “We have no news to share regarding any plan to introduce Evos into Australia.”

As seen with the forthcoming Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Blue Oval brand is also quite prepared to take a much-loved nameplate and turn it into something altogether different to meet market demand.

Let us also note that another Ford Evos concept was revealed a decade ago at the 2011 Geneva motor show, complete with gullwing doors and strong Ford Mondeo design cues.

The production-ready Ford Evos five-door SUV shows off an equally sleek design, with the front-end carrying a sporty motif complete with a full-width white LED strip book-ended by LED-heavy headlight clusters.

Along with pop-out door handles, large alloy wheels and a two-tone colour scheme, the Ford Evos is clearly shooting upmarket.

Inside, the Evos features door-to-door LCD screen space, starting with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster which is joined by a mammoth 27-inch touch-screen complete with 4K high-resolution image quality.

The entire unit is covered by a single sheet of glass, again adding to the Evos’ premium look and feel.

In terms of infotainment, the huge screens run Ford’s China-centric SYNC+ 2.0 system, which integrates Baidu’s AI technology to deliver what the company’s call a Virtual Personal Assistant.

It includes a claimed industry-first “co-driver” mode designed to make “road trips much more fun and efficient for both drivers and front passengers” by allowing both to simultaneously use the ultra-wide screen for different tasks.

The Evos also supports over-the-air updates from owners’ homes, to ensure the software is up to date.

Built by the Ford-Changan joint venture, the new Ford Evos also comes with a so-called BlueCruise system which employs Level 2 autonomous driving tech that allows hands-free driving on “prequalified sections of divided highways” in China.

Ford is yet to release details on the Evos’ powertrain, the platform that underpins it and other tech specs, but a hybrid set-up is expected to feature, with an EV model possible as well.