FordF

revealed that its new midsize electric pickup truck will be called the Fathom, starting at $28.35K for a standard-range battery, or $29.95K with destination charges.

Preorders open in early 2027, with customer deliveries beginning in fall 2027. Ford says it won't reveal the truck's full design until preorders open.

The name came from a nine-month internal process. Two copywriters independently landed on the word, which traces back to sailors measuring water depth and later evolved to mean complete understanding.

A new factory, a new formula

The Fathom is the first vehicle on Ford's new Universal EV Platform, built by a skunkworks team in Long Beach, Calif. that launched in 2022. The platform cuts total parts by 20% compared with a typical Ford vehicle program and eliminates 40% of factory workstations.

Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant is ditching the traditional single conveyor line. Workers instead build the front, rear, and structural battery-and-interior sections on three separate lines before merging them at the final stage.

To keep costs down, the Fathom uses lithium iron phosphate battery chemistry — cobalt-free, cheaper to produce, and safer, though it carries lower energy density than alternatives.

Every Fathom includes BlueCruise hands-free highway driving hardware, bidirectional power capability, a large touchscreen, a digital key, and native Apple Maps integration. Passenger volume is projected to beat a Toyota RAV4, with a frunk and truck bed adding cargo flexibility.

Ford has set a profitability target of one year from launch for every vehicle the platform produces.

This truck is the pivot

Ford's first generation of mass-market EVs, the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning, had sticker prices ranging from roughly $38K to around $90K. They also generated $19.5B in write-offs, ultimately leading Ford to discontinue the Lightning.

The Fathom is what comes after that reckoning. It arrives as Ford has been exiting the boring car business entirely, dropping the Focus, Taurus, Escape, and Edge in favor of trucks, SUVs, and performance vehicles.

Edmunds counts just 36 models in the US market with a starting price under $30K, putting the Fathom in rare company.

Ford's Andrew Frick, president of the company's electric and gas vehicle divisions, acknowledged the challenge directly.

Barclays analyst Dan Levy called it a really big bet, noting that no non-Tesla automaker has broken through in the EV market at scale. Ford's answer is that the Fathom's low price and simplified manufacturing give it a structural cost advantage its earlier EVs never had. Whether buyers agree gets tested when preorders open next year.