Ford’s $30,000 Fathom EV aims to simplify bidirectional charging
Dive Brief:
- The upcoming Fathom electric truck will be the first EV from a U.S. automaker with an MSRP below $30,000 that doesn’t need a separate inverter in order to supply its projected 10 kW of AC power to the home, according to a Ford blog post released Tuesday.
- To achieve that, Ford reconceived some onboard hardware on the Fathom to allow inverter capability to be integrated within the vehicle. The feat helps the automaker cut hardware costs for consumers while enabling the bidirectional charging capabilities already found in other EVs.
- Hardware will cost much less than what was offered with the F-150 Lightning. Ford says that its Home Power Station will cost about half of the Lightning’s required $1,310 Charge Station Pro, while the Fathom’s Home Backup Power Panel will cost about 60% less than the previous $5,205 Home Integration System — not including installation costs.
Dive Insight:
The Fathom — Ford’s first product to be built on a newly-conceived EV platform — employs a wide range of reconceived technology designed to be more simple and affordable. The e-Box is a prime example of the company’s approach to minimalism, as it is a single unit that manages charging, bidirectional charging, and the truck’s 48-volt system for accessory voltage.
According to Ford, the team behind the Fathom “started from a clean sheet” on the EV’s bidirectional hardware and software after acquiring Auto Motive Power in 2023. “Our goal wasn’t just to add bidirectional power to our EVs, but to redesign the system to cost far less,” said Dave McCreadie, Ford’s director of grid & energy services.
Electric vehicles’ batteries are energy storage devices on wheels, with tremendous potential either as backup energy storage devices when the grid is down or, when they’re networked with the grid, as well as assets that can help keep the grid more reliable.
Ford underscores that home backup functionality for the Fathom will be able to work two ways: as a grid-connected device that can help provide smart charging and power the home when electricity is expensive, or, with the help of the Home Backup Power Panel, as a true power source for the home when the power goes out.
“Bidirectional EVs at this volume are new territory for everyone,” said McCreadie. “That’s why we formed a utility working group in July 2026 with five major utilities — American Electric Power, BC Hydro, Consumers Energy, Exelon, and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. — to help define scalable interconnection processes well before Fathom hits the road.”
The group aligned on several major principles — including not to mandate that customers using bidirectional charging from their EVs be interconnected to the utility when using their EVs for backup power, just when they aimed to use power from the EV “in parallel with the grid.”
It also wanted to update and clarify standards as they apply to AC and DC bidirectional charging. Ford says the system leverages open communication protocols and was designed to meet applicable UL 1741 and IEEE 1547 standards for grid support.
“Interconnection processes were primarily written for rooftop solar and stationary battery storage, which are fixed assets,” summed McCreadie. “Bidirectional EVs bring new considerations because they are vehicles first, not stationary equipment.”
To the Fathom’s unique selling proposition, Ford has a point that requires a nuanced explanation. Although a number of EVs can output AC for temporary, lower-power uses, with so-called V2L adapters, the only U.S.-market EVs that have this level of AC output functionality enabled today are those from Tesla.
With a system called Powershare, recent Tesla models built from Oct. 1 onward, including the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck, are being built with the hardware to provide backup power to the home at up to 11.5 kW, according to Tesla.
The Tesla system on the Cybertruck requires a $1,970 Powershare Home Backup Bundle, including its Universal Wall Connector and a Powershare Gateway that forms what Tesla describes as “a complete home backup solution.” However the new bidirectional charging functionality in the Model 3 and Model Y is intended to integrate with Universal Wall Connector and a Powerwall 3 home battery backup.
With that detail, the price tag of getting full home backup functionality exceeds that of adding home backup from the Fathom — unless you happen to have already bought into some of the latest Tesla hardware.
The Fathom, which is set to be built in Kentucky, remains some months from its market arrival. Ford says it will open pre-orders for the model in early 2027, with deliveries due later in the year.