The Ford Motor Company has been playing its forthcoming Fathom electric pickup truck close to the vest, releasing few details ahead of volume production except for the MSRP of $28,350. Still, some clues have dropped. The latest news involves a newly released real-life data analysis of five-year battery capacity for the Ford Mustang Mach-E. The findings raise expectations for the next generation of Ford EVs, namely, the Fathom, which is the first vehicle to roll down the tree-like assembly line of the company’s new “Universal EV” platform.

On one level, the comparison between the Mach-E and the Fathom EV battery is apples-to-oranges. The 2021 Mach-E deployed the familiar lithium-iron formula, whereas Ford is equipping the Fathom with an LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) EV battery. LFP is a relatively new, more economical formula than Li-ion. All else being equal the tradeoff is lower range, though some Ford watchers point out that drivers can order their Fathom with an optional extended-range battery.

The point is that the 2021 Mach-E is old news. The new news is the forthcoming Fathom, which Ford has been regularly teasing as the first product of its secret, not-so-secret “skunkworks” team for the past five years or so. The addition of a cost-cutting, internal inverter for bidirectional charging is the topic of the most recent news drop, indicating that Ford expects Fathom drivers to use their EV battery for stationary applications as well as drive time.

Drivers who routinely use the bidirectional feature will likely put their Fathom through more charging cycles than a typical EV, and prospective buyers will need some assurance that their zero emission pickup will be up to the task.

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