Administrator
Administrator
- Thread starter
- #1
Here's what Ford said about the Fathom / UEV on yesterday's Q3 2026 earnings call (see full transcript):
James Farley (Ford CEO): And in Louisville, we are preparing the launch of the Fathom, our first vehicle off the UEV Platform. Rigorous testing and early supplier preparation are central to that effort. The launch remains on track for fourth quarter next year. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to drive our prototype. Wow, it completely blew me away, 0 to 60, huge room inside, and the hands-free, ADAS experience was like something I've never experienced. Fathom is really a breakthrough product. It's highly capable, innovative, affordable and that EV product will be available to more Americans way ahead of our competition. This will require high-level execution by our team to deliver on time and at cost.
And the MSRP under $30,000 and the low cost of ownership is perfect for today's market. Fathom will offer something brand new for U.S. EV customers, an advanced, zonal electric architecture, Ford's first 48-volt low-voltage system, along with a sophisticated advanced driver-assist capability, such as hands-free driving, an incredible rear-wheel drive performance feel and a lot of fun to drive. And bidirectional charging, so you can power your home with a Fathom when rates are high or during an outage, and there's so much more to this product that we're excited to share with you.
A. Kumar Galhotra (Ford COO): This is Kumar. Let me give you some color on the status of the [UEV] launch. It's progressing very well. 90% of the validation testing has been completed. We've built our first production line vehicles on -- at Louisville Assembly plant. So we're starting to prove out our production processes. One of the key new technologies for Fathom is unicastings. We've already produced 5,000 of them. So we're proving out our capability to run at rate, and that's gone really well. And to be specific about your question on what risk remains to be mitigated, it's primarily in the supply base. We need to make sure that the supply base can run at rate with high-quality parts.
And that's very normal at this stage of the launch, and that's what we're going to be working on for the next few months.
James Farley: The other element of the Fathom launch is critical is the revenue picture, which actually seems to be strengthening. Andrew, do you want to highlight the change in the U.S. EV market and how that relates to the profitability modeling?
Andrew Frick (President, Ford Blue and Model e): Yes. I mean, the market, as we've learned over the last couple of years is definitely in the U.S. specifically is not acting as a monolith, especially when it comes to the affordable EVs. We've actually seen EV prices go up about 10%, which has priced a lot of new vehicles out of the affordable market. So the customer is very limited with their new vehicle options. In fact, a lot of them are looking to the used market. So we're now looking at the EV market as new and used. We're about -- over half now of the vehicles sold under $40,000 are used vehicles.
That's really important because as you said, Jim, the Fathom starting MSRP is at $28,350. That's going to be right in the heart of the market. And it's not just the EV market. It's actually opening us up to a massive total addressable market. If you know that nearly 50% of the U.S. new vehicle industry transacts under $40,000. So not only do we expect Fathom for the reasons you mentioned earlier to attract new and used EV buyers but also ICE hybrid customers, especially because we're going to have much lower operating costs than even a mainstream hybrid vehicle. So the customer response on what we've shared so far has been really strong.
We're preparing for the launch, and we'll be launching our preorder program in the first quarter, and we'll have more to share with everyone at that time as we get close...
James Farley: So we're feeling pretty good about the industrial preparation and the revenue picture. It's impressive to me to see that the used -- the EV market is above 8% of U.S. industry now. And that's including all the issues Andrew just highlighted and the lack of affordability options. So I think we're -- it's a lot of work to still be done. We have a year to go. But I think we're positioned really well, which will be one of the 2 big drivers turning around Model e -- the vehicle side of Model e.
James Farley (Ford CEO): And in Louisville, we are preparing the launch of the Fathom, our first vehicle off the UEV Platform. Rigorous testing and early supplier preparation are central to that effort. The launch remains on track for fourth quarter next year. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to drive our prototype. Wow, it completely blew me away, 0 to 60, huge room inside, and the hands-free, ADAS experience was like something I've never experienced. Fathom is really a breakthrough product. It's highly capable, innovative, affordable and that EV product will be available to more Americans way ahead of our competition. This will require high-level execution by our team to deliver on time and at cost.
And the MSRP under $30,000 and the low cost of ownership is perfect for today's market. Fathom will offer something brand new for U.S. EV customers, an advanced, zonal electric architecture, Ford's first 48-volt low-voltage system, along with a sophisticated advanced driver-assist capability, such as hands-free driving, an incredible rear-wheel drive performance feel and a lot of fun to drive. And bidirectional charging, so you can power your home with a Fathom when rates are high or during an outage, and there's so much more to this product that we're excited to share with you.
A. Kumar Galhotra (Ford COO): This is Kumar. Let me give you some color on the status of the [UEV] launch. It's progressing very well. 90% of the validation testing has been completed. We've built our first production line vehicles on -- at Louisville Assembly plant. So we're starting to prove out our production processes. One of the key new technologies for Fathom is unicastings. We've already produced 5,000 of them. So we're proving out our capability to run at rate, and that's gone really well. And to be specific about your question on what risk remains to be mitigated, it's primarily in the supply base. We need to make sure that the supply base can run at rate with high-quality parts.
And that's very normal at this stage of the launch, and that's what we're going to be working on for the next few months.
James Farley: The other element of the Fathom launch is critical is the revenue picture, which actually seems to be strengthening. Andrew, do you want to highlight the change in the U.S. EV market and how that relates to the profitability modeling?
Andrew Frick (President, Ford Blue and Model e): Yes. I mean, the market, as we've learned over the last couple of years is definitely in the U.S. specifically is not acting as a monolith, especially when it comes to the affordable EVs. We've actually seen EV prices go up about 10%, which has priced a lot of new vehicles out of the affordable market. So the customer is very limited with their new vehicle options. In fact, a lot of them are looking to the used market. So we're now looking at the EV market as new and used. We're about -- over half now of the vehicles sold under $40,000 are used vehicles.
That's really important because as you said, Jim, the Fathom starting MSRP is at $28,350. That's going to be right in the heart of the market. And it's not just the EV market. It's actually opening us up to a massive total addressable market. If you know that nearly 50% of the U.S. new vehicle industry transacts under $40,000. So not only do we expect Fathom for the reasons you mentioned earlier to attract new and used EV buyers but also ICE hybrid customers, especially because we're going to have much lower operating costs than even a mainstream hybrid vehicle. So the customer response on what we've shared so far has been really strong.
We're preparing for the launch, and we'll be launching our preorder program in the first quarter, and we'll have more to share with everyone at that time as we get close...
James Farley: So we're feeling pretty good about the industrial preparation and the revenue picture. It's impressive to me to see that the used -- the EV market is above 8% of U.S. industry now. And that's including all the issues Andrew just highlighted and the lack of affordability options. So I think we're -- it's a lot of work to still be done. We have a year to go. But I think we're positioned really well, which will be one of the 2 big drivers turning around Model e -- the vehicle side of Model e.
