Ford EVOS electric crossover has a dashboard to put the Mustang Mach-E to shame
The Mustang Mach-E may not long have started arriving on dealership forecourts, but Ford has already revealed a new all-electric crossover, the Ford EVOS. Unveiled at Auto Shanghai 2021 today, the strikingly-designed EVOS will live alongside the electric Mustang in China, but sadly won't be spreading elsewhere such as the US.
That's a shame, because it's certainly a distinctive EV. Ford says the design – described as "Progressive Energy in Strength" – is tailored to suit local tastes, with a blend of coupe and SUV aesthetics.
What that means in practice is some of the lower body treatment we've seen on the Mustang Mach-E, like the power lines around the wheel arches, but with a lower, arcing roofline. The headlamps are narrower, and connected across the grille with an LED light bar. That grille has 3D texturing, Ford says, with a "parametric scale" pattern that's echoed on the EVOS' taillights.
Inside, meanwhile, there's a huge display that dominates the dashboard. The driver gets a 12.3-inch digital cluster, but it's the 27-inch 4K touchscreen that, unsurprisingly, catches the eye. Ford says the dash-spanning screen altogether adds up to more than three and a half feet of display for the driver and front passenger.
It's running SYNC+ 2.0, which taps local Baidu AI as well as a new interface and localized apps. For example, there's a Virtual Personal Assistant, and a "co-driver" mode which puts navigation and other information in front of the front passenger and encourages them to take a more active role in the journey. Alternatively, the passenger side can show entertainment content, or a new "relax mode" tempers the potential distractions with calmer ambient lighting and seat positions, among other changes.
Underneath it all is Ford's new Fully Networked Vehicle E/E architecture, similar to that of the Mustang Mach-E, which supports wide-reaching OTA updates. Ford will tap that to deliver new maps and software for BlueCruise, its hands-free driver assistance system, which will be offered on the EVOS. The EV also has C-V2X technology which shares traffic and incident data between cars to pre-warn drivers.
Both the EVOS and the China-specific Mustang Mach-E will be manufactured locally, with EVOS being produced by Changan Ford. Ford will also be taking a page out of Tesla's model for retail, with direct sales of the EVs planned. Ford says it aims for that strategy to reach 20 major cities across China this year alone.
No word at this point as to range, performance, or pricing on the EVOS. Ford will confirm that closer to the EV's release.