The evolved capacitor commutated converter (ECCC), embedded with anti-parallel thyristors based dual-directional full-bridge modules (APT-DFBMs), can effectively reduce commutation failure (CF) risks of line-commutated converter-based high voltage direct current (HVDC) and improve the dynamic responses of capacitor-commutated converter-based HVDC. This paper proposes an improved coordinated control strategy for ECCC with the following improvements: ①under normal operation state, series-connected capacitors can accelerate the commutation process, thereby reducing the overlap angle and increasing the successful commutation margin; ② under AC fault conditions, the ability of ECCC to mitigate the CF issue no longer relies on the fast fault detection, since the capacitors inside the APT-DFBMs can consistently contribute to the commutation process and further reduce the CF probability; ③ the inserted capacitors can output certain amount of reactive power, increase the power factor, and reduce the required reactive power compensation capacity. Firstly, the proposed coordinated control approach is presented in detail, and the extra commutation voltage to mitigate the CFs provided by the proposed control approach and an existing approach is compared. Secondly, the mechanism of the improved control approach to accelerate commutation process and improve the power factor is analyzed theoretically. Finally, the detailed electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation in PSCAD/EMTDC is conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed coordinated control. The results show that the proposed approach can present a further substantial improvement for ECCC, especially enhancing the CF mitigation effect.