Ford confirmed Thursday that its next-generation electric pickup will be called Fathom, will start at $28,350 (before destination), and will roll off a new Louisville, Kentucky line in fall 2027. It's the first vehicle to ride on Ford's Universal EV Platform (UEV), the low-cost architecture CEO Jim Farley has been building in a Los Angeles skunkworks to chase Tesla and China's affordable-EV wave.
Price And Positioning
Adding $1,595 destination and delivery brings out-the-door pricing to $29,945 — just below the psychological $30,000 mark Ford has publicly targeted since 2025. In a US market where the average new car costs roughly $50,000, the Fathom is only really shopping against the Jeff Bezos-backed Slate pickup and a few non-truck EVs like the Chevy Bolt.
BlueCruise Is Standard-Fitted
Every Fathom ships "BlueCruise-capable," meaning Ford's hands-free ADAS is baked into the hardware but likely paywalled at activation. Ford said this generation of BlueCruise will eventually handle supervised point-to-point highway driving, with true eyes-off operation targeted for 2028. That puts the Fathom roughly in the same functional bracket as GM's Super Cruise and BMW's Personal Pilot for hands-free freeway driving.
Under The Hood — And In The Dash
Base pricing includes a lithium iron phosphate pack; Ford has not yet disclosed range. The truck seats five, packs "more interior space than a Toyota RAV4," ships a large touchscreen, digital car key, bidirectional power (like the F-150 Lightning and hybrid F-150), and — notably — supports both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, plus Apple Maps in the native OS. Ford will not support Apple's next-generation CarPlay Ultra.
Why It Matters
The Lightning peaked at just over 10,000 units in its best quarter, and even Tesla's Cybertruck has crashed out. Ford is doubling down on the truck form factor for its first UEV vehicle in the hope that a $30K electric pickup — designed EV-native rather than retrofitted — can do for the low end what the Maverick did for the low-cost combustion segment. Farley staffed the program with talent from Rivian, Tesla and Apple's shuttered car project, hoping to escape the bureaucracy that dragged Ford's earlier EV bets.
Ford will pull the covers off the Fathom's design in early 2027 and open preorders then; deliveries begin the following fall.
Reporting based on coverage from TechCrunch and the Ford Motor Company announcement.