Ford Evos concept points to next Mondeo

Five years on from the launch of the Ford Iosis concept in London’s Docklands, the Blue Oval has unveiled the Evos concept in Berlin, ahead of its official launch at the Frankfurt Show in a fortnight. The connection here? Think Mondeo. Under then new design director, Martin Smith, Iosis went on to form the basis of the new Mondeo and in turn, Evos is a preview of that car’s replacement, slated for production in 2013.

This time around, however, the new design direction has to do two jobs. Not only will it clothe the new Mondeo, but it will also be adapted to drape over the replacement Ford Fusion in the States. We will see both vehicles at the Detroit Auto Show in January, where they will be trumpeted as the acme of Ford boss Alan Mulally’s “One Ford” concept; the same basic vehicle sold all around the world.

As a result, it’s all change for Ford’s “Kinetic” design philosophy, for which Iosis was in the 2005 vanguard. Evos is a simpler, more aggressive design, with heavily sculpted panels, which might give the production boys some headaches. So aggressive is the style, in fact, that this four-seat, four-door design wouldn’t look out of place on a Mustang with a gargantuan V8 under the hood – Evos is by contrast a plug-in hybrid, using the same petrol/electric driveline that will debut on the C-Max Energi in 2013.

The reverse sloping, high-mounted grille sets the tone, beset by narrow, hell-cat LED headlamps and muscular front wings with a power bulged bonnet. In the realms of science fiction are the four gullwing doors and the fast-back roof, which looks similar to the Mustang coupés of the Seventies.

Evos is the length of a Focus but the width of a Mondeo, which gives a dynamic, street sweeper stance, although it will be interesting to see how it is viewed in Europe, where such testosterone fuelled style has previously been written off as vulgar.