Ford's $28,350 Fathom Will Power a House Without a Wall Inverter, and Ford Is Lining Up Utilities First

The electric pickup due in 2027 builds the inverter into the truck and can send more than 10 kilowatts into a home. Ford says the home hardware will cost far less than it did for the F-150 Lightning.

DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford said on Tuesday that its Fathom electric pickup will be able to power a home through a built-in inverter, making it the first EV from an American automaker priced under $30,000 that can send more than 10 kilowatts of AC power into a house without a separate wall-mounted box. The truck, due in 2027, starts at $28,350 before a $1,595 destination charge, according to Ford’s Fathom page.

The inverter is the expensive part. EV batteries store direct current, and homes run on alternating current. On the F-150 Lightning, the conversion happened in a large charger on the garage wall. For the Fathom, Ford put the inverter inside the truck’s E-box, one of the five main modules of its new Universal EV Platform, Ford said in a post by Dave McCreadie, its director of grid and energy services. Ford redesigned the system from scratch after buying the startup Auto Motive Power in 2023.

A prototype illustration of the Ford Home Power Station and Home Backup Power Panel. Image: Ford

Owners will be able to use the truck in two ways. Home Power Management charges the truck when electricity is cheap and runs the house from its battery when rates go up. It needs only Ford’s new Home Power Station, which Ford expects to cost about half as much as its first-generation bidirectional charger. Home Backup Power keeps a house running during an outage and needs the Home Power Station plus a Home Backup Power Panel. Ford says that package should cost at least 60 percent less than its first-generation backup hardware.

Ford has not given final prices. Its first-generation Charge Station Pro cost $1,310, and the full backup setup cost $5,205, Fortune reported, which would put the new hardware at roughly $655 and $2,080. Installation is extra, and on older homes it can cost thousands of dollars more.

Ford chief executive Jim Farley announced the feature on X. Screenshot: @jimfarley98 on X

“Our team of amazing engineers developed a better, more efficient and more affordable way to bring more than 10 kW of home power, without a separate wall-mounted inverter, to a truck with an MSRP below $30,000,” Ford chief executive Jim Farley wrote on X.

Ten kilowatts will not run every appliance in a typical American house at once. Ford’s Fathom page says the battery can keep essentials such as lights, the refrigerator and Wi-Fi going during an outage. Ford has not said how long a full charge would last.

The Fathom’s E-box, one of the truck’s five main modules, holds the inverter. Image: Ford

The other half of the announcement is paperwork. There are more than 3,000 utilities across the United States and Canada, most with their own rules for connecting equipment to the grid, and those rules were written for rooftop solar and home batteries that stay in one place. In July, Ford formed a working group with American Electric Power, BC Hydro, Consumers Energy, Exelon and Pacific Gas and Electric to agree on simpler processes before the Fathom ships.

Ford’s comparison of external DC bidirectional systems with the Fathom’s onboard AC system. Image: Ford

The group agreed on three principles. The most practical one for owners is that someone who only charges the truck, or uses it for isolated backup power, should not have to go through grid interconnection at all. That step should apply only when the truck runs in parallel with the grid. The group also wants procedures updated for the latest bidirectional charging standards, and it plans to keep working with regulators. Ford says the Fathom’s system is designed to meet UL 1741 requirements and the IEEE 1547 interconnection standard, and it uses the SAE J3068 communications standard, which helps keep the charger’s cost down.

Ford’s illustration of a truck powering a home during a neighborhood outage. Image: Ford

The Fathom is the first vehicle on Ford’s Universal EV Platform. Ford says preorders begin early next year and that it has not yet published an EPA range estimate.