Will Ford’s new Fathom electric truck be the EV that brings bidirectional charging to homes?

Bidirectional charging is a promising technology that can enable EV owners to use their vehicles as mobile energy storage systems, powering homes during power outages, powering tools and equipment in remote locations and, theoretically, providing services to the electrical grid for compensation.

As I explained in my Charging Forward column in the most recent print issue of Charged, the technology for bidirectional charging and the applications it enables (collectively known as V2X) is proven and available today, and V2X is already in use in commercial applications (in the US, mostly school bus fleets). However, residential V2X is currently available only via a few proprietary and pricey offerings.

The new Ford Fathom electric truck, which is due to arrive in 2027, will offer bidirectional charging. Ford has designed a new generation of enabling hardware, which it says will be more efficient, and cost far less, than the bi hardware that was offered with the ill-fated F-150 Lightning. Ford says Fathom will be able to deliver 10 kW of AC power to a home, with no need for a separate wall-mounted inverter.

Ford acquired the startup Auto Motive Power in 2023, and “started from a clean sheet” on the Universal EV Platform’s bidirectional hardware and software. The new system features fewer parts, including a multi-function inverter that’s built into the vehicle’s E-box, one of Fathom’s five main modules.

Fathom’s system is designed to meet all applicable UL 1741 requirements. It uses the SAE J3068 communications standard (with LIN-CP), and complies with IEEE 1547 interconnection standards for connection to the grid.

Fathom’s bi capabilities enable two applications for residential customers:

• Home Power Management lets Fathom owners charge the vehicle’s battery when electricity is less expensive and use it to power their home when electricity is more expensive. (This is only possible for customers of utilities that offer time-of-use [TOU] rates.) This requires Ford’s Home Power Station, which Ford says should cost about half as much as its first-generation bidirectional charger.
• Home Backup Power lets Fathom send power to a customer’s home when the power goes out. This requires the Ford Home Power Station and Ford Home Backup Power Panel, which is expected to cost 60% less than the first-generation home backup hardware.

In theory, bidirectional charging can enable vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications, allowing utility customers to provide services to the grid, perhaps for compensation. Residential V2X is currently active in a few pilots, but it remains to be seen whether and when it will achieve widespread adoption.

In order to prepare for that day, Ford has formed a utility working group with five major utilities to help define scalable interconnection processes. The working group has identified three main goals:

• Clarify the question of when interconnection regulations and utility procedures apply to bidirectional EVs. Interconnection should not be required for EV owners to use backup power, but only for customers to operate their bidirectional EVs in parallel with the grid.
• Update interconnection procedures and regulations to incorporate the latest bidirectional EV charging standards, including standards that apply to both DC and AC systems.
• Work with utilities, regulators and OEMs to update interconnection regulations and utility procedures to ensure that bidirectional EVs can be adopted and easily interconnected.

This is all great stuff. The folks at Ford who are working on this are addressing the right issues, and they’re surely committed to advancing electrification.

Unfortunately, we’re not convinced that the same applies to top management. Ford had an electric pickup, and a bidirectional charging system to go with it, and it cancelled both products after only three years, citing insufficient profit. Some suspect the real reason was political pressure. The cancellation of the F-150 Lightning coincided with a broader repositioning away from EVs. The symbolic renaming of a flagship factory from The Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center to The Tennessee Truck Plant seemed to sum up the company’s priorities.

Over the years, US automakers’ commitment to smaller pickup trucks has also been sporadic. Pickups are a fashion product, and for many buyers, bigness and loudness are part of the cachet.

Will Fathom be a success, and catalyze broader home V2X adoption, or will it be cancelled the next time an anti-EV tantrum emanates from Washington? As we EV journalists have said so often over the past decade, we shall see.

Source: Ford