A car that powers a house, but only barely
Ford's Fathom EV can keep your fridge running during a blackout, but not much else.
The story
Ford announced the Fathom EV, which can power a home and includes two new chargers. The Fathom starts at $28,350 and can provide over 10 kW of power, enough for basic home needs. The chargers are cheaper than previous models, but installation costs remain high.
Source: techcrunch.com
Our reading
Ford’s Fathom is the cheapest American EV that can power a house, which is impressive until you realize it can only run a fridge and AC for half a day. The company is selling this as a solution to energy instability, but the real problem is that most homes still need a full generator for anything more than a brief outage.
The chargers are half the price of previous models, but installation costs can still top $10,000, which makes the whole thing feel like a luxury item for people who already have the money to afford a backup power system.
Ford is positioning the Fathom as a way to make money by selling power back to the grid, but the average homeowner probably won’t see the return on investment until they’ve owned the truck for years—by which point, the car might be a relic.
