Ford Fathom EV Truck at $28,350 Adds Built-In Home Power Backup

Ford's upcoming Fathom electric truck, expected early next year, will start at $28,350 and include bidirectional charging, letting it send power from its battery back to a home. That could keep lights on and the fridge running during a prolonged outage. For comparison, the average transaction price of a new EV is closer to $55,000.

Bidirectional power has historically been a premium feature on pricier electric cars and has required costly extra home hardware. Ford says it is lowering the cost by building the technology into what will be its cheapest EV yet.

How it works

The Fathom rides on Ford's Universal EV Platform, developed with help from Auto Motive Power, a startup Ford acquired in 2023. The hardware that converts the battery's DC energy into an estimated 10 kW of AC home power sits inside the truck, so no wall-mounted inverter box is needed. Ford says the system will meet applicable UL 1741 and IEEE 1547 requirements for safe grid connection.

Everything points to the NACS plug, pioneered by Tesla, while communication between the wall box and the onboard charger will use SAE J3068, a protocol built for high-power AC charging. Because the power-routing hardware lives in the vehicle, the wall charger gets cheaper, which helps households with several EVs, a second home or a detached garage.

Home hardware still costs extra

The truck alone does not make a house ready. To charge the battery when electricity is cheapest and offset peak-hour usage through Home Power Management, owners need at least the Ford Home Power Station. Ford has not given a price but expects it to cost half as much as the first-generation Ford Home Energy system, which debuted at about $1,300, implying roughly $650.

Full Home Backup Power requires both the Home Power Station and a Home Backup Power Panel. Ford expects its second-generation package to be "at least 60% lower" than the roughly $5,000 first-generation equivalent, which suggests a ballpark of $2,000. Installation costs will vary by location and home.

With energy costs for both electricity and fuel rising, cheaper hardware could let the setup pay for itself relatively quickly. So far Ford has shown little of the Fathom beyond its name and camouflaged prototypes.