Fathom parked at Ford WHQ (photo)

[HondaPrologue]

Taken from reddit. I love seeing 245/50 tires!

 

[Snakebitten]

Michelins, to boot!

The Primacy isn't my favorite truck tire Michelin offers, but I have to admit that I have grown to respect them more as I have put 13,000 miles on a oem set of 35" Load E's on the 9000# Sierra EV.

Wearing even and slower than I predicted. Typical Michelin smooth and quiet too. The only problem is that they are a specific size, built specifically for the insane huge 24" Hummer/Sierra/Silverado wheels, and therefore ridiculously priced at more than $600 per corner.

 

[mark]

I doubt that the Fathom will come with $2400 in tires.!

 

[mark]

 

[mark]

Not cheap, ~$1400 OTD for retail at Costco.

 

[paneubert]

Well yeah..... but that is already only half of $2,400 (Ok....a bit more than half). And those are consumer prices, not even the massive volume price Ford can get. What do they say, the average markup on a product is usually 40%?

 

[mark]

Since buy three get one free shows up regularly, 40% margin sounds right. No one sells at loss unless they are closing the doors.

 

[paneubert]

No one sells at loss unless they are closing the doors.

Or Ford when they had the sub 20K Maverick in 2022. Haha.

 

[mark]

You think history will repeat?

 

[paneubert]

Regarding Ford selling the Fathom at a loss? I would not be surprised at all if they sell it at a slight loss for the first model year. Or sell at a loss for a few months and then do a "mid year" price adjustment to recoup a bit of the loss. Then in year two the price will jump on all trims as well as all packages. That is my guess.

They want to sell 100K in year 1 from what I heard. Yeah, it is a lot of money, but even selling at a $500 loss on 100K is "only" 50 million dollars. Ford could handle that.

 

[mark]

Sounds like buying now would be an investment compensating for the inconvenience of first year issues.

 

[paneubert]

Sounds like buying now would be an investment compensating for the inconvenience of first year issues.

Ohh boy. If you were around for the 2022/2023/even the first part of 2024 world of the used Maverick market, it was crazy to see the resale values. I have had three Mavericks. I made money on each when I sold it. Blows my mind. I anticipate Fathom may be similar, depending on how flooded the market is with Fathoms. If they really do produce 100k in year 1 then it won't be as intense. But who knows.

 

[TNFurb]

Farley seemed pretty adamant in one of the interviews he did that they had to turn a profit in the Fathom even with the sub 30k price tag. While I agree that the price will likely increase in year two if the truck is as popular as they’re hoping, I kinda think they’re not going to take a loss in year one. They may only make $100 per vehicle, but I think they’re won’t be selling at a loss. Unless of course it ends up being a dud and they can’t give them away. Which I doubt.

 

[Snakebitten]

I doubt that the Fathom will come with $2400 in tires.!

The Fathom tire size is far from unique. It's actually mainstream, in fact.
There's no market price-cover for Michelin to take advantage of.

GM, on the other hand, shod the Denali EV with 275/50/24R

I just checked Discount Tire again, and it appears the price has dropped almost $100 per tire in the last 6 months. Kind of amazed.

 

[commadorebob]

It will take a while before the Fathom recoups the investment costs. I highly doubt Ford sells the truck at a loss. Keep in mind that Ford isn't buying tires at retail price either.

I wish the picture was a little higher resolution. The camo appears to contain a barcode. I'm sure it just takes you to the Fathom website on Ford, but it would be interesting to confirm.