Introducing Ford Fathom: The newest member of the Ford EV Truck family ⚡

[jsamp17]

Im lucky enough to have landed a Lightning and dont expect give it up.

That said, I was originally a Tacoma guy who wanted a small electric truck before giving up and getting into a Volt. This sounds a lot like the truck 7 years younger me was hoping for. I hope Ford is wildly successful with the Fathom. Im excited to see what comes of this and the new platform.

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[wescravinshocker]

I cannot fathom why they think this is a better idea instead of continuing to improve the Lightning.

I totally agree. We could've kept making the lightning and then added another line for the EREV at the same plant or built it on the same line.

 

[TaxmanHog]

The ad is shows Ford is positioning this as a family vehicle that happens to be a truck and not a work truck like the Lightning. They are also showing how it will make life better(with bed 120v power) and that it will last a long time (a lot like some Subaru ads). There seems to be some smart messaging. As long as dealers don’t mess this up, I think this will be as popular as the Maverick.

This is also my take, the animation created an emotional draw.

I hope it draws in the right crowd of Ford committed as well as a new class of conquest sales, we need to MoCo to be healthy in the coming decades to be able to bring better vehicles that interest us.

 

[ryun]

I don't see myself getting rid of my lightning anytime soon but that Fathom is tempting. Especially since it's gonna have outlets in the bed. Gonna keep an eye on it.

 

[Zprime29]

I don't see myself getting rid of my lightning anytime soon but that Fathom is tempting. Especially since it's gonna have outlets in the bed. Gonna keep an eye on it.

From what I can tell, only 120v though, right? I really like having the 240V outlet with PPOB. I think the biggest differentiator is going to be the 48v system for all the electronics and not having to rely on a lead acid 12V battery for everything. At the same time, I think that's also their biggest risk since it is such a new design.

 

[jsamp17]

From what I can tell, only 120v though, right? I really like having the 240V outlet with PPOB. I think the biggest differentiator is going to be the 48v system for all the electronics and not having to rely on a lead acid 12V battery for everything. At the same time, I think that's also their biggest risk since it is such a new design.

Not sure --If its capable of doing whole house backup then it will have the ability to produce 240v. But I suppose lightnings without the 240v outlet are supposed to be able to home back up as well. So no guarantees there I guess.

I think youre probably right. With a parked lightning and 131kwh to work with a heavy 240v load might not draw down the battery so fast. I think that would be a different experience with only 51kwh. So I could see a 240v outlet being a premium option or possibly not even offered.

 

[Newton]

I look forward to getting official specs on things like...

Battery size: rumors have it at 51kWh for the 'base' version, but the Chinese Ford Bronco has a 104kWh LFP (BYD) battery - that would be nice to have in the new truck

Range and Miles per kWh: the Chinese Ford Bronco has a range of about 403mi on the 104kWh battery so about 3.88mi/kWh, and that Bronco does not look all that "aerodynamic" to me - if the battery is the rumored size (51kWh) then 3.88mi/kWh would give a range of about 198 miles

V2H (bi-directionality): the usefulness of that will depend on several factors - 1) the battery size and 2) the efficiency - net energy delivered to the home after internal losses due to DC-AC conversion. Practically speaking, a 51kWh battery could power my home emergency circuits for a day or two if I limit how much I use 'high' power appliances (microwave 2kW max and coffee pot 1kW) using a reserve of 2kWh. So really the rumored 51kWh battery would be a bit small for home backup in areas with long-duration outages (the hurricane zone)


PS: the Chinese Bronco info from this source:

I disagree with you about the battery size - 51kWh would be a robust home battery backup system. The AnkerSolix E10 that I’m considering starts out at 6kWh and maxes out at 90kWh - which is a pretty big stack of batteries. The only question is amperage, please Ford make it at least 50A output and some way to deal with the GFCI issue without rewiring my house panel.

You don’t need to do anything very complex, talk to some yachting electricial engineers. All the stuff that you need to have smooth millisecond failover power backup exists already. If you pull the cord on one of the big yachts at the dock they won’t even notice.

 

[chl]

I disagree with you about the battery size - 51kWh would be a robust home battery backup system. The AnkerSolix E10 that I’m considering starts out at 6kWh and maxes out at 90kWh - which is a pretty big stack of batteries. The only question is amperage, please Ford make it at least 50A output and some way to deal with the GFCI issue without rewiring my house panel.

You don’t need to do anything very complex, talk to some yachting electricial engineers. All the stuff that you need to have smooth millisecond failover power backup exists already. If you pull the cord on one of the big yachts at the dock they won’t even notice.

I have a transfer switch and can use the Lightning PPOB 240V 30A outlet, haven't had an emergency but have done several test runs.

When not running the high power devices like microwave (2000W and coffee pot 1000W) just running lights, computers, Fios, TVs, fans, etc. I use about 1kW. Maybe over night when lights are off a bit less.

So that's how I came up with the 2 day (48 hours) estimate allowing for a reserve of 2kWh of the 51kWh (at 100% charge).

I could probably get part of a 3rd day out of it if I was careful.

I am an electrical engineer.

From what I understand, the new truck would have onboard some kind of V2H system, which I assume means either an on-board inverter or a DC output to use with an inverter, but I have not heard the details yet.
They did say it would be controllable so one could charge up the truck battery during off-peak and power the house during peak utility times. One hopes the implementation will be better than the HIS system!

Assuming it's an on-board inverter and a wall box that is bidirectional AC, then the question is like you said at what amperage.

If they stick with the 48A charging for the new truck, I'd guess the bidirectional wall box would also be 48A back to the house, but just a guess.

What ever it turns out to be, it would be nice if our FCSPs would work with it, but that is doubtful.

As long as there is a 240V 30A outlet on-board, like the Lightning PPOB, I could use that without having to redo my EVSE set up. [I have a CCS1 to NACS adapter for L2 AC charging from A2Z.]

https://a2zev.com/products/thunderstorm-lite

All those details are unknown by the general public at this point, unfortunately.

 

[RickLightning]

So the Fathom has a 120v outlet! Cool! Just like my 2010 Fusion Hybrid. What will they think of next?

 

[Newton]

I got to test out Pro Power for real recently when my power company decided to replace power poles to my neighborhood (on the hottest day of the year so far). It used surprisingly less power than I expected. From 1:11pm to 7:54pm I used 1.3 kWh (that is when I thought to put on the scanner), overall I used about 3% of the battery over about 9 hours. This was running a refrigerator, heat pump hot water heater, microwave, TV, computers, etc. Unfortunately not the heat pump air conditioner because I chose to backup the hot water heater over the air conditioner since my power outages are usually in the winter.

Microwaves don’t use that much power because you usually use a lot of watts for a small amount of time - don’t defrost a turkey in a power emergency! On boats (not super yachts) I have lived off of small battery banks for months at a time and the real power users are things that run continuously. Changing to an LED anchor light made a surprisingly large difference in how long I could go without recharging, since it is a continuous load. Flamboyant things like microwaves, thrusters and lifting davits don’t eat up that much total power, although they don’t like operating when the batter is low. The biggest user is the refrigerator or the pumps for the diesel heater in the wintertime. This is assuming that you have upgraded to lower power light

My plan now is to put in a smallish (6-12 kWh) battery bank with an automatic transfer switch that will support the house when I’m gone or overnight, which I can recharge from the truck if necessary.

 

[GDN]

If Ford wanted to do this right, they would have hired a non-automotive company to design the best 60 to 80kW battery backup system on the planet, efficient, best tech. Charge from 120 or 240, reverse that and put back out what it pulls in at about 60 amps. Design that perfect system that would last most people 5 days in a power outage.

Then license from Tesla the compute power for drive train, verhicle operations, mobile app, self drive capabilities and daily use. Then let Ford design or build the body or just take the Maverick or Ranger body and put it on top. Sell for $40K

Then do the same again with a 150kW battery, make it full size, ie Lighning. Sell for $65K

Then build millions because you'll sell every one you can make and have a line waiting.

 

[lipnorth]

If it helps adaptability of EV trucks and helps Ford redouble their efforts in the EV space I’m a supporter - even if I ain’t parting with my Lightning!

 

[JayF]

Then license from Tesla the compute power for drive train, verhicle operations, mobile app, self drive capabilities and daily use. Then let Ford design or build the body or just take the Maverick or Ranger body and put it on top. Sell for $40K

Then do the same again with a 150kW battery, make it full size, ie Lighning. Sell for $65K

Then build millions because you'll sell every one you can make and have a line waiting.

I'll state this here: you are 100% incorrect; at least in my case. You're not going to find me buying a vehicle powered by code written by an Elon Musk company.

 

[GDN]

I'll state this here: you are 100% incorrect; at least in my case. You're not going to find me in a vehicle powered by code written by an Elon Musk company.

Everyone makes a choice to enjoy different levels of success. I didn't say everyone would buy one. But it would be the number one seller.

 

[Oldschoolofhardknox]

A toy half-truck with a half-battery to replace the electrified version of the F-150, which is the best selling truck of the last 50 years. Mismanagement and ridiculous ideas will have them buried under FATHOMS of financial losses. It makes me wince to watch it unfold. But, at least for now I have a Lightning, which is the best truck ever (for me). Ford, please get your act together.

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