Ford’s Fathom electric pickup will start at $28,350 before a $1,595 destination fee

Ford’s Fathom electric pickup will start at $28,350 for the standard-range battery model, before a $1,595 destination fee that brings the sticker to $29,945, just under $30,000. Ford describes the Fathom as a midsize, four-door electric pickup, and the starting price is roughly half what Electrek says the F-150 Lightning costs.

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Nobody can order one yet. Ford says official preorders open in early 2027, and the company is asking interested buyers to sign up now for an invitation and updates while it works toward the first deliveries later that year.

Equipment included at $28,350

Ford’s own Fathom page lists a starting MSRP of $28,350 with the standard-range battery, excluding destination and delivery and dealer documentation fees, and a destination and delivery charge of $1,595. The page adds that dealers set the selling price, so the figure is a starting point rather than a guaranteed transaction price. Electrek’s report on the preorder invitations puts the base price at about half that of the F-150 Lightning.

Several answers are still missing. The Ford page says projected EPA-estimated range figures are not yet available, and Electrek reports that towing capability and dimensions have not been announced either. Prototypes seen testing look about the size of a Maverick, although Ford calls the Fathom a midsize, four-door electric pickup, so the final footprint is unconfirmed.

Ford is also making cost claims beyond the sticker. According to Electrek, the company says five-year ownership costs for the Fathom will come in below those of a three-year-old used Tesla Model Y, and it is targeting a 0 to 60 mph time comparable to a Mustang EcoBoost. Those are Ford projections for a vehicle that has not been built in volume, so they carry the usual caution about early company claims, and no figure for range has been released, although Electrek’s July report on the prototypes says an expected range of at least 300 miles has not been confirmed by Ford.

A cheaper battery and a new platform

The Fathom is the first vehicle on Ford’s Universal Electric Vehicle platform, and it uses lithium iron phosphate batteries that are free of cobalt and nickel. According to Electrek, the pack forms the floor of the vehicle, which lowers the center of gravity and adds interior room. Ford says the cabin will have more passenger room than a Toyota RAV4, not counting the frunk and bed.

Standard equipment listed by Ford includes a large touchscreen with navigation powered by Apple Maps, a Digital Key, remote control through the Ford app, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Every Fathom is expected to be capable of BlueCruise hands-free highway driving and to offer bidirectional power. Electrek’s earlier report on prototypes found camouflaged test vehicles charging at a Tesla Supercharger with a native NACS port on the driver’s side at the rear, so no adapter is needed there.

The Apple Maps tie-in was announced in July, when Ford chief executive Jim Farley said the new midsize electric vehicle would be priced around $30,000 and would be “simple, useful, and truly attainable for more customers,” according to Electrek’s coverage of the announcement. The $28,350 starting price lands under that target before fees, and just beneath it afterward.

Louisville, 2027 and the manufacturing test

Production is the harder part of the story. Ford plans for the first prototypes to roll off the line at the Louisville Assembly Plant in 2027, with deliveries later that year. A Ford spokesperson told Electrek that the company has said previously that Fathom will launch in 2027, and that there is no change to that.

Farley has been unusually candid about the challenge. At the Automotive News Congress he said, “It’s going to be a heck of an effort to launch this at scale, at cost, on time,” and in remarks summarized by another Electrek report he added that Ford had not yet landed the plane on mass production of its Universal EV platform. The same report says Ford is investing $5 billion across Louisville and its BlueOval Battery Park in Michigan, and that Farley described a BYD electric vehicle as holding a roughly 20 percent battery cost advantage over the Fathom.

Ford responded by modifying the motors, gearboxes and inverters so it could use smaller batteries, per that report. A Wall Street Journal account cited by Electrek says Ford aims to sell 100,000 Fathoms in the first year, a goal Electrek says may be hard to reach given the production hurdles. The $28,350 figure applies to the standard-range model, and dealers set the final selling price, so buyers will learn in early 2027, when preorders open, whether the starting price survives the scramble to build the truck at scale and at cost. Until then the number is a published commitment from Ford, backed by a 2027 launch plan that the company says is unchanged, rather than a price anyone can order at.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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