Fathom vs. Mach-E

[Tdubz]

Jim Farley has talked about this. Since most of the cost is in the battery pack, using a smaller battery combined with a gas engine doesn't really increase the cost of the vehicle. However, he was a little adverse to the idea at first because of the build complexity to make ICE and EV work together reliably. What changed his mind is that Lightning ended up only comprising <5% of F-150 sales, and the people who did buy/lease them (myself included) complained about the absolutely miserable range while towing. And so, with the Ram 1500 REV launching this fall I think Farley wants to see how that goes and if Ram has success with it, the next gen Lightning will also use a gasoline range extender too.

For the Fathom, the entire point is to make assembly as simple and easy as possible, which is one way they are keeping this under $30k. I suspect, but cannot confirm, that lower quality parts are the other half. Anyway, so it made sense for THIS vehicle to be EV only.

I think one of the ways ford is reducing the cost is by using smaller LFP batteries. Smaller batteries equal lower price, but also decrease range. So ford is also adding more aerodynamic designs to the UEV vehicles. So smaller battery and aero design equals the same range as bigger battery with boxy design. This is why the fathom doesn’t look like your typical truck.

 

[nvabill]

Nope.
Ford never said that or even hinted it would be an option.

Yeah, my bad, guess I had the Lightning confused with it.