Ford has been progressively building anticipation for its all-new affordable electric pickup for the last few months, revealing its name and its price; the Fathom will start at $28,350 (before a $1,595 destination fee). But now company CEO Jim Farley is lightly pumping the brakes on the hype train, saying that Ford still has work to do to optimize the Universal Electric Vehicle platform upon which the Fathom will be built. Speaking at the Automotive News Congress event in Detroit, Farley said, “We haven’t landed the plane on mass production of the UEV yet. It’s going to be a heck of an effort to launch this at scale, at cost, on time.” Put simply, Fathom production may not begin next year as intended.
Ford Fathom’s Affordable Price Could Be At Stake
Imagine.Art/Yash Bajaj
While Ford has committed to sub-$30k pricing, Farley says the automaker is still exploring ways to reduce the electric pickup’s production costs. The Blue Oval has previously confirmed that it is working with new suppliers it hasn’t engaged with before in getting the UEV’s supply chain in order, and striking the right balance between cost and quality is surely a challenge. Similarly, getting that balance right will matter to buyers, and with Ford confirming that every Fathom will have the necessary hardware to take advantage of BlueCruise hands-free driving technology – along with Apple Maps, standard CarPlay and Android Auto, bi-directional charging, and a digital key – opportunities to save money are surely scarce. It’s also worth mentioning that Ford is targeting 0-60 mph in around 4.5 seconds, which means the Fathom will need decent brakes and rubber. Of course, the Fathom isn’t the only vehicle Ford plans to produce on the UEV architecture. Bigger, potentially more profitable offerings may help balance the ledger, but they’re years away, and investors in a publicly listed company like Ford don’t tend to have much patience when it comes to throwing billions at the immensely competitive EV space. In other words, Ford can’t afford to overengineer the Fathom for fear of incurring the wrath of the accountants, and it also can’t underdeliver and disappoint buyers, or interest in future electric Fords will be weak.
Autoblog’s Take
We have no doubt that Jim Farley is deadly serious when he talks about the financial challenges associated with launching a mass-produced, low-cost electric pickup. And with even cheaper offerings coming from Slate Auto and REO, the latter of which is developing a $21,500 gas pickup, the Fathom will have its work cut out proving that it’s worth the higher sticker price. But after President Trump decided to slash fuel economy requirements, Ford will have much more leeway to meet average emissions standards, freeing up resources that would have been allocated towards increasing gas engine efficiency. On the other hand, the reclassification of crossovers and small SUVs as passenger vehicles instead of light trucks (a handy and profitable loophole for automakers) means Ford will have to work harder to meet some targets, including safety benchmarks, and that’s not cheap either.
