Secret big new Ford Mondeo outed: Could this be the next global Ford Falcon?

Images of the next-generation Ford Mondeo have dropped, showing a very different machine to the near-decade-old model of the same name it replaces.

Initially released on the Chinese Ministry for Industry and Information Technology website this week, the pictures show a high-series sedan from several angles, as well as a few detailed close-ups, including the word MONDEO displayed on the bootlid.

Said to be a co-operation between Ford and long-time Chinese partner Changan, the new Mondeo will debut in China sometime early in 2022, to sell alongside the very closely-related Evos crossover unveiled earlier this year.

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But don’t get your hopes up just yet, as one Ford source has told CarsGuide that there are no plans currently afoot to import the new Mondeo nor its expected Fusion identical twin spin-off to Australia, as they are only for sedan-focused regions like Asia, North America and possibly Eastern Europe.

However, the existence of an all-new large sedan proves that Ford is not abandoning the traditional low-slung three-box family car entirely in favour of SUVs after all, unlike as previously thought.

Furthermore, some analysts reckon that Ford is simply playing semantics, since it has stated that there merely won’t be another Mondeo; this could be interpreted as the replacement boasting a new name. 

Whether that’s Fusion, Evos or some other fresh or historic badge like Cortina, Sierra, Torino or even Falcon, is anybody’s guess right now.

UK publication Autocar has reported that the new Mondeo is the largest yet. Looking at the figures, it eclipses the final Falcon in most dimensions, measuring in at 4935mm long (–20mm), 1875mm wide (+7mm) and 1500mm high (+47mm), while at 2954mm, the newcomer is a whopping 116mm greater in wheelbase. These numbers also beat the previous model it replaces.

Like China’s Evos, the new Mondeo employs Ford’s modular C2 architecture, which is the basis for the current Focus small car and Escape medium SUV sold in Australia, as well as a host of other models that are not, including the hot-selling Bronco Sport, Maverick and Mustang Mach-e. Note that the latter is on the electrified offshoot of C2 known as GE2.

Design cues from the Mustang Mach-e are evident in the new Mondeo’s four-door fastback silhouette, rakish windscreen, body surfacing and even the three-pronged tail-light motif. In fact, to say the Mondeo is a combustion-engine version of the Mach-e with a boot may not be too wide of the mark.

The new Mondeo will debut in China sometime early in 2022.

While there are no interior shots as yet, reports predict that the new Mondeo’s dashboard is essentially identical to the Evos, down to the metre-long-plus instrument panel and 12.3-inch touchscreen.

It’s also believed that the front or – depending on grade – all-wheel-drive sedan’s powertrains will mirror its C2 cousins, which means it should include the rorty 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engine known from the recently-discontinued Focus ST-Line, as well as the 2.0-litre four-pot turbo and 2.3-litre plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) set-up as found in the Escape.

Interestingly, while the current MD Mondeo was discontinued in Australia at the end of 2019, it remains on sale in Europe, although production will cease next year at Ford’s Valencia factory in Spain.

The takeaway from all this is: while we may never see a Mondeo-badged sedan in Australia ever again, the 2022 Mondeo (and its Evos crossover sister) might become part of the local portfolio further down the track.

Stay tuned as we keep watching this space very closely.