Ford’s next-generation electric pickup truck now has a name, a price, and a firmer release timeline. Set to arrive late next year, Ford’s next act in electric vehicles will be called the Fathom, the automaker announced on Thursday. It will start at $29,945, including a $1,595 destination charge.
As the first model built on Ford’s new Universal EV Platform, the midsized pickup is a crucial vehicle for Ford’s EV business. The Dearborn automaker reported a $19.5 billion writedown tied to canceled EV projects in 2025, as it navigated to the rollback of federal EV tax credits and fuel economy standards. It discontinued the F-150 Lightning after seeing no path to profitability for the large truck, leaving it with one passenger EV in the U.S., the Mustang Mach-E.
As Ford tries to find its footing in the EV market for a second time in the modern-EV era, the Fathom represents a fresh start. It also marks a major departure from the company’s traditional naming strategy. And a Ford executive explained why.
Ford EV pickup prototype undergoing winter testing.
Photo by: Ford
Kay Hart, general manager of Ford’s Model e business, told me in an interview that the name is meant to reflect the profound change the electric truck represents for the company. Ford says it’s playing off of both meanings of the word: It’s both a measure of depth and means to understand something.
“We’ve reached a new depth of innovation in terms of how we brought it to life, be that engineering, be that manufacturing, be that design,” Hart said. (A fathom is equivalent to about six feet, but Hart clarified that doesn’t hint at the truck’s bed length.)
Ford Fathom design sketches.
Photo by: Ford
Ford’s first-generation EVs—the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit—carried decades-old gas car nameplates. The Fathom, by contrast, joins a list of strange names Ford trademarked last year, including Fuze, Hive, Mythic and Evos. None of those other names has been confirmed for a production vehicle by Ford.
Name aside, the Fathom’s biggest strength may be its price. At just under $30,000 all-in, it should just about match Ford’s Maverick pickup. It also lands in the same ballpark as the Chevy Bolt and the new Nissan Leaf, two of the few affordable EVs on the market. The Slate truck undercuts them all as America’s cheapest passenger EV, starting at $26,400 including destination.
Unlike the Slate, however, which comes with manual crank windows and no standard touchscreen or speakers, the Fathom appears to offer a solid list of standard features. And unlike the Bolt and the Leaf, it will be a truck with more interior room than a Toyota RAV4, Ford has said.
“It is not a stripped down vehicle,” Hart said. “We have given customers content that we know that they love and taken out costs where we know they don’t.”
Every Fathom will come with a large high-resolution touchscreen featuring native Apple Maps. The native Apple Maps integration will support EV route planning by automatically suggesting charging stops, displaying nearby chargers, and providing real-time traffic information and turn-by-turn navigation. It will also support Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
All Fathom trims will support BlueCruise, Ford’s hands-free driver assistance system that competes with Tesla’s Autopilot and General Motors’ Super Cruise. The base model will be “BlueCruise-capable,” but owners will have to pay extra to activate it. Beyond that, Ford said the truck will offer bidirectional charging, a digital key, and a frunk all as standard equipment.
There are still plenty of unanswered questions, though. Ford has yet to disclose the Fathom’s battery size, driving range, or fast-charging capabilities. The $29,945 starting price applies to the standard-range battery, so it’s reasonable to expect Ford to also offer an extended-range version with a larger battery pack. Hart did, however, hint at the Fathom’s ultimate driving range.
“We know that there are customers that are looking for 300 miles of range,” she said. “So we will have options, but we’re not in a position to announce what that range is at this stage. We’re very confident that as we get close to the launch we’ll have the right range for our customers.”
Ford has also confirmed that the truck will use domestically produced prismatic lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells from BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, the company’s new $3 billion battery plant, where it is manufacturing batteries using technology licensed from Chinese battery maker CATL. The truck itself will be built in Louisville, Kentucky, using a radically new “assembly tree” manufacturing process.
When I asked about potential cannibalization among Ford’s existing models, especially with the similarly priced Maverick Hybrid, Hart said the two vehicles will target different buyers. She expects most Fathom customers to purchase it as a lifestyle vehicle rather than a work truck.
“They are definitely two very different products, serving two very different customers and lifestyles,” she said. “[The Fathom is] high tech, capable, and adaptable over time, be that through software or hardware.”
We won’t have to wait too long to see how the name, price, and overall package land. Ford said it will begin taking preorders for the Fathom early next year, when it will also fully reveal the truck. Customer deliveries are scheduled to follow in the fall of 2027.
Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com