Will the Heat Pump system in the Fathom be as complicated as the one in the Mach-E?

[onuiebvbevnulib]

Take a look at this article on the Mach-E Forum:

2025 Mach-E Heat Pump Technical Info

Information on the new heat pump has now been published. It is a vapor injection heat pump which means it's capable of operating at low ambient conditions. In short, the new heat pump system is very complicated. It can operate in 8 different modes.

Note this:

The Ford Vapor Injection Heat Pump (VIHP) system is primarily managed by one dedicated local control module known as the Heat Pump Valve Control Module (HPVCM).

Control System Overview

• HPVCM (Heat Pump Valve Control Module): This dedicated unit directly commands and controls the electronic expansion valves (EEVs) and overall operation of the vapor injection loop.
• Integrated Network:While the HPVCM is the dedicated sub-controller for the physical valves and refrigerant flow of the VIHP, it does not work in isolation. It relies on data inputs and communication shared across other primary vehicle control modules via the CAN bus, including:
  • HVAC Control Module (processes cabin climate requests and ambient/interior sensor data).
  • PCM (Powertrain Control Module).
  • SOBDMC (Secondary On-Board Diagnostic Control Module)

Since the Fathom is going to Zonal architecture with 5 Zones and No CAN Bus (uses Ethernet instead) I wonder if the Heat Pump system was redesigned (skunkworks) from the ground up for the Fathom (Universal EV Platform)?

 

[WXman]

That's a good question. I do know that on the Lightning trucks, there were quite a few reports of HVAC system failures. My 2025 was one of them. The HVAC system had a control module/unit of some kind fail, and that was the only issue I had with the truck.

Also, a point of interest is that several guys who had older Lightning trucks said that the newer ones with heat pumps did not show significant improvements in performance during cold weather. I never drove one of the older ones myself, but my newer one with the heat pump had to work really hard to keep up in the winter. I had to set the auto temp much higher to stay comfy than I do/have in any of my other vehicles. And, the interior would randomly fog up all the time, even with HVAC on. That's not a good thing for safety. The reason that's interesting to me is that Ford went to a great deal of expense to add a heat pump system to the trucks, and if it doesn't really improve things much I wonder if it was worth it.