Fathom's bidirectional AC power can power your home (V2H)

[Snakebitten]

I'm not one to freak out about subscriptions. They just have to pass the sniff test for my personal value-equation. Afterall, I have all kinds of subscriptions in modern life. Subscriptions are consumption and convenience costs.

Having said that, I will be very disappointed if there's a 240v inverter onboard, but I can't access it's output anytime anywhere via a distribution panel/outlet in the truck. I'm an avid user of both Ford's 7.2KW ProPower in my Powerboost, as well as GMC 7.2KW "Energy sharing" in my Denali EV truck.

Yeah, I have both. I'm an hopeless addict for electrification trucks. I love driving rolling powergrids.

Hopefully Ford doesn't lock that inverter behind the V2H feature exclusively. That wouldn't make sense after the Lightning and Powerboost. They've set precedent for things like this

 

[msieczkowski]

This

 

[msieczkowski]

A subscription makes sense for the "allow your battery to be used by the grid" piece. Ford will have to maintain infrastructure to communicate with all the utilities that participate. That isn't free and if you included the lifetime cost of maintaining that to the vehicle cost people would complain the Fathom costs too much and it would also be unfair to the people who never use it. The home backup piece is too vague at this point to judge.

 

[chl]

The Lightning owners on here are all too familiar with Ford's first attempt at this. The Ford Charge Station Pro was paired with the Sunrun Home Integration System (link) Cost a lot of money, had many software issues, lots of finger pointing, etc. Sounds like all they did here was to now use the truck inverter but kept a lot of the expensive hardware. Oh, and added a new monthly subscription.

Hooking a Lightning or EcoBoost's bed outlet to a generator inlet on your electrical panel is the way to go if all you need is occasional emergency power. So much so that Ford is now promoting it's own generator cable/adapter that attaches from the bed outlet to a Generlink meter base (link). Total cost under $2.5K including installation.

Can't see any Lightning owner trusting this new Fathom system.

Yes.
Only took them 3 years to fix the HIS/FCSP bugs (if they're finally fixed now?).

The HIS could integrate with a solar install which is probably why some people bought it.
No mention of that with this new system that I saw.

If all they did was repackage the HIS and reduce it to 2 boxes instead of the way the HIS was configured...

Call me skeptical...

I like the alleged programmability of the Fathom system to off-set peak utility rates, etc., but we Lightning owners all know how much trouble Ford has had in the past getting software 'right' and fixing it when it needs it, something as simple as setting charge current, or time of day to charge, got fouled up by over the air updates now and then.

I hope the Fathom has the PPOB 240v/30a in the bed - I could be happy with a smaller more efficient PU truck like the Fathom - but I'd want to keep my $400 transfer switch emergency home backup system for the rare outage occurrence rather than sink $2500+ installation and subscription fee at this point anyway.

If utility peak rates were to spike it might be a different story.

 

[commadorebob]

I personally would rather they just charge more up front than subscribe us to death.

 

[mark]

Agree. Updates included OTA no charge. it is not clear if that subscription was just for the off peak system as well as the powering for lost of service during an event. I can not use the off peak service and the occasional power loss could not justify a monthly fee. My principal reason for this over the hybrid is this benefit. Maverick is now a mature product, making it a less troublesome purchase, especially with the current drop in 2027 prices on higher trims. I look forward to clarification from Riley.

 

[rtf150]

But….Could one daisy chain Ford priducts such as the Powerboost and the Fathom to power ANY home if one wanted??? . I believe that someone will find a way to provide power to a home with a Fathom and without Ford’s subscription or their fancy light switch. Enjoying reading everyone’s thoughts. Appreciate you all!

 

[Snakebitten]

I'm 99.99% convinced that Ford will equip the truck with all the features of its well established (and received) ProPower Onboard, regardless of whether they rebrand it as something else. Otherwise the Fathom's E-box inverter would only have value at home in your garage.

Ford can't be that oblivious to the gnashing of teeth that would draw.

I think Ford is swinging for the fences on this thing. And they should be. They desperately need to meet and exceed expectations.

 

[onuiebvbevnulib]

To the best of my knowledge, there are no low cost evening rates(off peak) in my region.

I just checked in the DFW area (https://www.powertochoose.org) and there is only two that do.
TXU has an extremely on peak high rate of 18.4 cents per KWH and Chariot Energy has a One Star rating.

So a hard pass on both.