Business06 August, 20263 min read
Ford Confirms Fathom Electric Pickup With $28,350 Starting Price and 2027 US Pre-Orders
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Ford names its all-new midsize electric pickup ‘Fathom’ for the US market. Starting price is $28,350, part of Ford's budget-focused EV strategy.
Ford names Fathom
Ford has confirmed its next electric pickup will be called the Fathom, with pre-orders opening in the US in early 2027 and a starting price of USD$28,350 (AUD$40,300) for a standard-range battery. Drive reported that Ford has trademarked the Fathom name locally, an indicator that a launch in right-hand drive is at least under consideration, if not necessarily locked in. The Detroit Free Press said Ford’s engineers spent nine months considering hundreds of names for the first all-electric midsize pickup built on Ford’s new Universal Electric Vehicle platform.
The same Detroit Free Press report tied the truck’s production plans to Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky, saying Ford CEO Jim Farley called Fathom the first of a family of vehicles to come off of Ford’s UEV platform when it is ready to start production in 2027. Ford also said it chose the moniker because engineers had to come up with fresh innovations and “fathom possibilities once thought to be out of reach,” according to the Detroit Free Press.
Features and pricing
Ford said the Fathom will start at $29,945, that includes the $1,595 delivery fee, and the Detroit Free Press reported that customers can sign up at www.ford.com for updates with pre-orders opening early next year. The Drive report said the Fathom is a compact, dual-cab electric ute similar in size to North America’s petrol Maverick and rides on a new low-cost electric-car platform destined for a wave of future Ford EVs. Drive also reported that the Fathom will offer a “large” touchscreen, digital phone key, vehicle-to-load (V2L) power capability, under-bonnet storage, and space for five adults in the base price.
The Detroit Free Press said every Fathom will be BlueCruise capable and that the Fathom will be the first car to get Apple Maps directly embedded in vehicles. TechCrunch framed the pricing as a major part of the pitch, saying Ford said the Fathom would start at $29,945, including the destination fee, and that it is “significantly below the $50,000 average for new vehicles.”
A test for Ford
TechCrunch said Ford CEO Jim Farley is betting the forthcoming EV pickup, Fathom, will change its fortunes by calling the introduction of the truck and its Universal EV platform a “Model T moment” for the company. TechCrunch also argued that the Fathom is unlikely to be another Taurus or Explorer, two hits that drove Ford sales in the 1990s, and said the compact pickup form factor was a niche the market largely ignored until Ford started selling the Maverick in 2021. Columna Digital reported that Ford’s sales rose 6% in the last year but still do not reach the peaks of 2000, and it said Farley centers his hopes on the Fathom as a comparable moment to the Model T.
TechCrunch pointed to the Maverick’s sales of 155,000 last year and said the Taurus sold more than twice as many at its peak in 1992, while Cox Automotive data cited by TechCrunch put SUV demand at just over 70% of prospective buyers versus 33% for pickups. In TechCrunch’s framing, the Fathom may not need to be a breakout hit because it could be “a test of its new production process,” a toe in the water before Ford expands the Universal EV platform into other segments, including SUVs.