The Forgotten Ford Concept Car That Still Looks Futuristic Today

The Synergy 2010 was Ford’s 1996 thesis on what cars would look like in, yes, 2010. The styling was fittingly retrofuturistic: everything was either smooth or squared off, surfaces were polished to mirrors, and something unnecessary had been done to the wheel wells. It looked, for lack of a better word, like a concept car, a wild design constituting a wild guess at what the future of motoring might be like.

If the outside of the Synergy 2010 tried and failed to predict the automotive future, the inside succeeded. The Synergy 2010 was Ford’s assertion that the future would be about delivering a cheaper, safer, more sustainable, and more economical car for the average motorist. Under the Tron-esque styling of the Synergy 2010 was a midsize family sedan with a shockingly modern list of engineering innovations. No classic Ford V8 up front: the Synergy 2010 was a hybrid, combining an electric motor with a 1-liter diesel engine for a reported 80 miles per gallon. Plenty of steel went with the big plant: the Synergy 2010’s curb weight was barely 1 ton. There was even an onboard voice-controlled phone book (via CarStyling).

Ford

Almost 30 years on, modern motorists who can see past the Ford Synergy 2010’s “Days of Future Past” styling get a genuine glimpse of the future: an affordable family sedan more interested in comfort, convenience, and climate responsibility than turning heads at the track.