Ford Motor Co.’s new budget-conscious electric pickup — dubbed the Fathom — will start at just under $30,000 when it arrives next year, the company’s opening bid to become competitive with low-cost electric vehicles from China.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker revealed the vehicle’s name and a starting price of $29,945 including shipping fees, confirming its long-stated plan to price the truck around that level. Pre-orders will begin in early 2027, with deliveries starting later in the year, the company said.
The Fathom is Ford’s first vehicle based on a new universal electric-vehicle platform that will eventually underpin a series of affordable electric models. Developed in California by a top-secret operation led by Tesla Inc. veterans, the next-generation EV was engineered to be lighter, sleeker and more electrically efficient to go farther on a charge while still starting well below the nearly $50,000 average selling price of a new car in the U.S.
While Chinese vehicles are effectively blocked from the U.S. market currently, the vehicle represents a crucial test of whether Ford can eventually compete with the tech-laden, low-priced EVs from Chinese carmakers such as BYD Co. that are rapidly gaining market share around the world. The Fathom will be able to operate Ford’s Blue Cruise driver-assist feature and offer conveniences such as Apple Maps on a high-resolution touch screen, Ford said.
Ford’s push to make an affordable, profitable EV that Americans will buy is the 123-year-old automaker’s latest attempt to break through in battery-powered cars. The company in December took $19.5 billion in charges tied to a sweeping overhaul of its money-losing EV business, including the cancellation of its slow-selling F-150 Lightning full-size electric pickup.
The effort comes in an uncertain period for EV demand in the U.S. Sales have plummeted since Republican lawmakers and President Trump moved to unwind policies supporting EVs, including a $7,500 consumer tax credit.
Elevated gas prices are nudging U.S. consumers into smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and more carmakers are flocking to the midsize truck segment, where rugged features help plump up margins.
Ford has already found success with the Maverick pickup truck, one of the top-selling hybrid models in the country last quarter.
The Fathom will face off with another EV truck entrant, Slate Auto’s stripped-down electric pickup, due at the end of this year. The two-seater starts at about $25,000 with a standard range of 205 miles.
Coppola writes for Bloomberg.
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