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's upcoming Fathom electric truck - expected to arrive early next year - is reasonably priced at $28,350, especially given that the average transaction price for a new EV is closer to $55,000.

But the added bonus is a feature that could save you money, and literally save your bacon. The automaker's "clean sheet" reboot of its EV ambitions will be offered with bidirectional charging, which allows the truck to send power from its battery back to the house it's plugged into. That could keep the lights on and the fridge running during an extended power outage.

Historically, true bidirectional power has been a premium feature on more expensive electric cars and has required additional, costly home hardware. Ford says it's bringing costs down by building the tech into what will be its cheapest EV yet and making it more accessible to a wider range of homeowners.

So far, Ford hasn't revealed much of the electric truck beyond the name and camouflaged prototypes.

Ford Fathom and Universal EV Platform

The upcoming Fathom will be based on what Ford calls its Universal EV Platform, designed with the aid of its 2023 acquisition, startup Auto Motive Power, with bidirectional power on the plate from the start.

The hardware required to invert the battery's DC energy to an estimated 10 kW of AC home power will be built into the truck, so it won't require a separate wall-mounted inverter box.

Ford says the Fathom's system will meet all applicable UL 1741 requirements and IEEE 1547 standards to ensure the vehicle is safely connected to the grid.

As for the actual hardware you plug into your car, all signs point to the Fathom using the NACS plug type pioneered by Tesla and now widely adopted by new EVs in North America.

In terms of the communication standard - the one that governs how AC power is routed from the slim wall box to the car's onboard charger - that'll be via SAE J3068, a software protocol developed for high-power, heavy-duty AC charging.

Not Totally Hardware-Free

Ford says that bringing the power-routing hardware directly into the vehicle reduces the cost of Fathom's wall charger, making it easier for homeowners who need multiple chargers, whether for:

• a multi-EV household
• a second home
• a detached garage

In other words, you pay for the advanced bidirectional technology once (built into the vehicle's price) rather than buying it multiple times for each wall outlet you want to install around your property.

However, while Fathom's Universal EV Platform eliminates the need for a wall inverter box, it doesn't completely bypass the need for additional hardware to make your home ready to accept bidirectional power.

Say you wanted to take advantage of the Home Power Management feature to draw energy into the Fathom's battery when power is cheapest, and then use that energy to offset peak-hour usage when power is most expensive. You'll have to install at least the Ford Home Power Station in your home, at an additional cost.

The automaker hasn't specified pricing, but says that it's working to reduce costs and expects this component alone to cost half as much as the first-generation Ford Home Energy system, which debuted at around $1,300. That could put the new system at roughly $650.

For full-featured Ford Home Backup Power, which lets the EV supply power to the house during a power outage, you'll need both Ford's Home Power Station and Home Backup Power Panel, each a separate purchase.

Here again, Ford expects to price its second-generation hardware "at least 60% lower" than the equivalent first-gen package, which cost roughly $5,000. So expect a ballpark of $2,000 for that extra peace of mind that your fridge won't spoil when the lights go out.

That's just the cost of the equipment itself. Your installation costs will depend on where you live and your specific house.

Still, making the hardware less expensive for your home and vehicle is a step in the right direction. And considering the rising cost of energy (both electricity and fuel), this setup may pay for itself relatively quickly.