Ford’s Most Affordable EV Will Offer Built-in Bidirectional Home Charging
The Fathom’s built-in inverter can keep the lights on in your home during an outage — not bad for under $30,000.
Ford is set to introduce its most affordable electric vehicle, the Fathom, priced at $28,350, which is significantly lower than the average new EV price of $55,000. One notable feature of the Fathom is its bidirectional charging capability, allowing it to send power back to the home it's plugged into. This feature could prove invaluable during extended power outages, keeping essential appliances running and minimizing the need for costly additional home hardware.
Historically, bidirectional charging has been a premium feature associated with more expensive electric vehicles, but Ford aims to make it accessible to a broader range of homeowners by integrating the technology directly into the vehicle's price. The truck will be built on Ford's Universal EV Platform, which was developed in collaboration with its 2023 acquisition, auto parts supplier Auto Motive Power.
The bidirectional charging hardware is designed into the Fathom, eliminating the need for a separate wall-mounted inverter box. The vehicle will utilize the NACS plug type, which is similar to Tesla's, and the SAE J3068 communication standard for high-power, heavy-duty AC charging. While the Fathom's Universal EV Platform reduces the cost of the wall charger, homeowners will still need to purchase additional equipment to fully utilize the bidirectional charging feature.
One such piece of equipment is the Ford Home Power Station, which helps manage energy usage during peak and off-peak hours. The second piece of equipment is the Ford Home Backup Power Panel, which enables the vehicle to supply power to the house during outages. Ford expects to reduce the cost of these components by at least 60% compared to the first-generation hardware, bringing the price down to roughly $2,000 for the home backup package.
While the Fathom's bidirectional charging feature reduces the need for multiple chargers around the property, the system still requires some hardware installation. The total cost for these additional components could amount to around $2,000, depending on the homeowner's location and specific circumstances. Despite these costs, Ford believes that the setup could prove cost-effective given the rising energy prices.
Written by urgent.news from CNET's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
