Ford has just revealed its latest attempt to sell what it has been unable to make money selling so far. It is the Fathom – which is a strange name for a pick-up truck since it is a measure of how deep under the water you are. Well, maybe it’s just the right name, since Ford is already about $20 billion deep in the abyss trying to sell battery-powered vehicles such as the recently cancelled F-150 Lightning and the Mach e “Mustang.” (If a five-door EV crossover can be called a Mustang then anything can be a “Mustang.” Tthe name no longer has any meaning. Just usage.)
Ford is of course hoping the Fathom will sell.
More specifically, that it won’t lose Ford more money. This of course all hinges on enough people ponying up enough money for Ford to recoup what it spent to bring the Fathom into production – plus a profit. This means selling a lot of Fathoms; at the very least in numbers on par with the number of Maverick hybrids Ford sells. Last year (2025) Ford sold about 155,051 Mavericks. That’s the kind of volume needed to make money on a vehicle that has a low profit margin, which is what a lower-cost vehicle usually is.
Ford makes a lot of money selling Lincoln Navigators, even though it only sold 22,185 of them last year. The reason why is that the profit made on each sale. Navigators are high-profit-margin vehicles; so also the Ford Expedition that the Navigator’s based on as well as the F-150 pickup (not the Lightning) that both the Expedition and Navigator are based on).
It’s doubtful there’s a lot of margin for profit built into the Fathom’s touted base price of $28,350 – which is the price Ford says it will ask right now, but this EV won’t actually go on sale until late 2027 or about a year from now. Minimally, the ongoing destruction of the buying power of the dollar – that thing blandly referred to as “inflation” – will effectively force Ford to ask for more dollars, in order to avoid losing them. The actual retail price – say it like Bob Barker used to – is certain to be closer to $30,000. Even if not, the Fathom’s promised price is already slightly higher than the actual price of the 2026 Maverick pickup, which lists for $28,145 right now.
For that, you get a hybrid pickup that has a standard range – to use EV terminology – of 579 miles in city driving and 483 miles on the highway. Split the difference and you get a rough average of about 500 miles of driving range. How much range do you get for $28,350? Ford hasn’t said yet, but the inside baseball is somewhere around 200 miles. This is where catch meets 22. In order to keep the Fathom’s base price low – for an EV – battery costs (the most expensive component in an EV) have to be reduced. Thus, the Fathom’s standard-range battery can only store so much electricity, which means the Fathom with this battery doesn’t go very far before it has to be charged up and that means having to wait. Yes, you can wait at home. You’re still waiting. And there’s no getting around the having to stop and wait when you’re not at home if you want to drive farther than the standard battery’s charge will take you.
Everyone’s hip to this flaw now – and it’s probably the main reason why EV sales have stalled. Instant torque and silent drive aside, not many people are willing to wait even ten minutes (to get a little charge) when they can get a full tank in less than five.
There is also another flaw – when it comes to electric trucks. The range will plummet if you use the thing as a truck; i.e., to haul or pull a load. The recently retired F-150 Lightning touted immense towing capability. People found out that if you actually wanted to use it, the driving range declined by 50 percent. I personally tested a Lightning and found that with a relatively modest trailer hooked up, the thing had a realistic driving range of about 100 miles. Forget about it, my as my friends in the mob like to say.
The Fathom will, like most EVs, offer what’s called a “long-range” option. That is, a more powerful battery that can store more electricity. It would be more accurate to call it longer-range, since in most case you still don’ t get range comparable to the standard range you’d get with a gas-engined vehicle; viz the Maverick hybrid. “Long” implies just that.
But it’s not – in the case of most EVs.
The longer-ranges option will increase the Fathom’s driving range to about 300 miles, according to the insider baseball whisperers. That would increase the Fathom’s practicality by decreasing the amount of waiting – though you’d still be dealing with that if you wanted to take a trip that approaches the longer-range version’s maximum driving range, which still isn’t very far and which also assumes it’s not too hot and not too cold out, so you don’t lose charge running the AC or the heat, etc.
But – catch comes to give 22 a big wet kiss – the Fathom with the practical (sort of) longer-range battery isn’t going to cost $28,350. It is typically the case with EVs that the optional longer-range battery adds thousands to the vehicle’s MSRP. For example, the 2026 Tesla Model 3 with the standard-range battery lists for $36,990. If you want the longer-range version, the price climbs to $42,990. The 2026 Nissan Leaf with the standard-range battery lists for $29,990. If you want the longer-range option, the price climbs to $34,230. It’s likely to be something similar with the Fathom, in which case the more-practical version (with the longer-range battery) is probably going to list for around $35k by the time it becomes available about a year from now.
This is probably going to sink the Fathom.
Would you pay a $6k premium to drive a Fathom that – even with the longer-range battery – still only goes about half as far as Maverick? Keeping in mind that the Maverick also does not force you to wait for more than a few minutes – about as long as it takes to take a pee break – to recover all 500-plus miles of its driving range.
According to an article published by Yahoo News – which interestingly omits any mention of the standard-range’s driving range and fails to mention that the longer-range version will almost certainly cost thousands more than the ballyhoo’d price of $28,350 – the Fathom will be “both high-tech and fun to drive.” Really? How so? The “high-tech” includes Ford’s “hands free driving assistant.” How is it fun to drive when you aren’t driving? It will have a “large, high-resolution LCD touchscreen.” Ok, so does literally every other new vehicle. And? 
Well, there’ll be a frunk. The F-150 Lightning had one of those also. So does just about every other EV.
Yawn.
Some might say it’d be a lot more fun if Ford were to build a 2011 Ranger again. You got a standard range of about 400 miles – with no more than a pee break’s wait to recover it – and a five speed manual transmission, which made it fun to drive – for a base price of $18,160.
All of a sudden I’m thinking about how the chocolate ration has just been increased.
. . .
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Well, who is Ford’s management accountable to? Technically, it’s the shareholders, but most of those shareholders own via mutual funds/retirement funds managed by Vanguard, State Street, Blackrock, Blackstone, and the like – who execise those shareholder voting rights “on behalf” of their mutual fund clients.
So the fundamental problem isn’t simply that Ford’s upper management is incompetent, though of course they are, it’s that the people at the big financial management firms are insane and are incapable of engaging with the reality that electric cars are worthless. I presume they have some sort of sub rosa financial interest in pushing electric cars – one that the SEC should take a very close look at (they won’t, of course). It’s not too different from Fauci preventing existing effective treatments for diseases from being used to push ineffective new treatments that were under patent (many such cases).
It’s just another example of a small group of parasites causing sociental destruction to skim a percentage, with no concern at all for the consequences of their actions. At best, these people belong in insane asylums, but there is probably a more expedient measure available.
This^^^. The car companies have not listened to customers in a long time. Also, obviously, the BoD of most companies are not under any threat from the three ‘shareholders’ that own 85% of these companies. Finally, you have to participate in the game if you want to keep your savings from losing all its value to inflation.
I can’t fathom…
Why Ford would build a Fathom “device”…
Unless it was to sink Ford many fathoms…
“Deep sixing” Ford into bankruptcy!!!
Unless it’s the (((tribe))) again, trying to force everyone into only electric cars, 15 minute cities and noahide laws for Goyims….
Then it makes perfect sense….
YMMV….
This is the point where it’s worth mentioning that Blackrock, Vanguard, et al, are all owned and ran by jews. I’m thinking this is pretty important in the pattern recognition universe.
kina of off topic: I’m sick of the manufacturers changing the design of every car & truck every year! When they have a decent design, why can’t they just keep it for 10 years or so? Then we would all be able to get parts. I’m sick of everything changing every year — that’s not sustainable or efficient at all whatsoever.
And there’s lots of older cars & trucks that were very reliable and everyone liked them. So why don’t they just make those same vehicles again?! Why are they constantly throwing out engines etc that are proven to work well, and coming up with new stuff that doesn’t work as good? They’re supposed to be improving things and then keep making the perfected things — instead as soon as they perfect something they throw it out and make new garbage! I’m sick of this!
Because there’s no money/grift in that.
My aging ’12 Ram C/V (think Caravan with 2 front seats and empty floor behind, easily swallows 4×8 sheets) with 3.6 283 HP V6, still got scoot, doesn’t burn oil or amps, still manages 22-25 MPG on a 17 gal tank.
374-425 mile range on a 5 minute fill up. No car payments. No need to keep up with the Joneses. No intrusive “assistant” peeking out from the dashboard.
There was an article in yesterday’s WSJ titled ‘Ford is going to bring back a gas powered Mustang’ or something to that effect. Reading the story it’s going to be a 4 door hybrid (so only partially gas) probably with a CVT. Even if that happens and Ford uses the original Mustang styling it will still be loaded with all the saaaafety and nanny crap, so why bother.
Is Ford CEO Jim Farley in a right frame of mind? EV’s are a bottomless money pit and anyone with a smidgen of business sense knows to dump that loser. Maybe mandatory drug testing is in order before the company goes belly up.
>the company goes belly up.
Part of the Morgenthau plan.
A couple of decades ago I applied for a position as a warehouse supervisor. They told me drug-testing was mandatory. I asked “is upper management also drug-tested?”
I didn’t get the job.
Excellent point. I noticed this as an undergrad — all the stoners were going to get lucrative jobs where they didn’t have to be drug-tested, like my hippie roommate who became a high school art teacher. (I hear he just retired with a state pension… and his kid is a tranny).
Meanwhile the high-school football team gets piss-tested.
I vividly remember a kid whose dad owned a trucking company (which he probably inherited) lighting a bowl full of dope. His dad’s truck divers were all piss-tested if they wanted what was probably a $5-6-an-hour job way back then… probably $20-22 now.
All you need to do is look at the crackhead Hunter Biden, a Yale Law grad, to see that elites exempt themselves from the rules you proles must abide by…
I remember pissing for my brother numerous times. Just saying.
Check his T level! Could explain mental issues
https://www.urologytimes.com/view/testosterone-levels-show-steady-decrease-among-young-us-men
Somewhere else mentioned this has been declining since the ‘40s.
I must have super powers because I can look at a young man–or old, doesn’t matter and tell if they even have any testosterone in them at all. Sadly, a lot of them don’t and it’s kind of creepy. How can it be creepy you ask. Well, you can just look at them and see feminine traits, soft looking hands, no facial hair, probably some tats or not showing. Hair style?, long and stringy, sometimes some kind of neon color, bun on top of head. Don’t like to call it a ‘man bun’ since they are male only because of genetics. I’m talking about males that are not tranny’s, or trying to be, just regular young men—or older as I said, that have no idea what grease under your nails is, electrical, plumbing, any kind of skill that most young men grew up knowing how to do. I know two older men–in their 60’s—that had to be taught how to use a gas chainsaw. Yes, taught, I’m rolling my eyes here.
My late husband was probably born with grease under his nails and I’m pretty sure had a small chainsaw as a crib toy along with regular basic tools that every man ought to know how to use and ought to have them in their shop or garage.
Okay, I guess you get the idea. These are second and third generation men that that don’t know how to fix anything and they have to call someone to do a job around the house that they ought to be able to do.
One more thing and I’m being serious, I really think birth control pills have affected the T levels of men just because there are so many girly males—and well the ‘heroic’ single mother. That doesn’t help at all.
Hi Elaine,
LOL…any guy who had a small chainsaw as a crib toy is okay by me. 👍
The daughter and I went shopping in NOVA yesterday and it just is a different type of guy…silky smooth hands as you stated, if they had a woman with them they were carrying her purse, and for some reason they were all wearing crocs. I hate crocs. Nothing destroys my libido then seeing some guy walking around in them. I am pretty sure not one of these “men” owned an actual pair of work boots. And a Carhartt jacket? Completely out of the question. Tool bag? Not a chance. If you held up a pair of needle nose pliers I doubt 75% would know what they were.
Hey RG—Exactly, you see the same type of males that I do. They are everywhere. I have noticed men carrying their wife’s purse a lot too. That is strange. Crocs? Yes a man in crocs is a crime against nature. You are right about the pliers. Most men don’t know what any tools are or workboots.
I hope there are more of us normal people than the weird ones. We seem to be holding our own but the way the world is now it’s scary.
Hi Elaine,
My buddy’s son can weld and operate heavy equipment. All hope is not lost! (I often regret that I never had kids; I’m a difficult dude in some ways, but I do know how to fix stuff.)
Ford’s electrification strategy remains a mystery. They have the F-150 Pro Power option in the hybrid that puts a 240V 30A NEMA outlet in the back of the bed. A very useful product for towing.
They could put this inverter package in a cargo van configuration and basically destroy RAM and Mercedes’ conversion van market. No need for a house battery, extra generator, etc. Just an extra jerry can or two of regular old pump gas. Not only would that save a massive amount of space in the living area (and weight) there’s less to go wrong, less time fabricating and if it breaks down, take it to any Ford dealer in the western hemisphere.
But instead it’s a one-off product marketed to contractors, who are probably going to have a temporary service drop from the electric company before any work begins.
A $500 generator can power all the sites saws and compressors with the added bonus that if your generator brakes you can easily replace it or repair it compared to Ford’s F-150 Pro Power system.
These days almost every contractor has at least one generator especially if they do any new build work or resto work on damaged structures.
Yeah, the ford invertor power thing IMO was a gimmick. No smart contractor is going to run his 10-20K engine to get temp power somewhere. As Landru said, they use a simple and easily replaceable portable generator.
Granted it could have use for a temp home power situation, but again, you’re running a very expensive engine.
The Ford transit van’s small weakness (for RV use) is it’s uni-body is not as strong as a real frame. IDK what MB or Ram does, but I’ll guess the MB is heavier duty, but I believe the ram is FWD based, so that’s out for anything HD.
I own a Ford transit van and it is a great vehicle that rides like a car, handles well, does everything well, but it does not tow heavy (uni-body). It has a similiar tow rating as my uni-body Grand Cherokee V8
How about a five speed manual and non-turbo 2.5 L gas engine in the Maverick for $20k to start?
Produce them in sufficient volume to overcome the dealer insider grift.
Amen, Roscoe!
I wish I could get hired as a car company CEO. Of course, that’s just the problem. They’d never hire someone like me as a car company CEO.
PS: Here’s a mood lifter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdfLUIc1E6A
I can’t believe Ford doesn’t sell the more basic configuration somewhere south of the Rio Grande.
The base price of a Maverick in 2022 was $19,995. Now it’s $28,000.
Big chunk of change.
But private owners were flipping them, and dealers were marking them up ten grand over MSRP. And they were still selling.
So I can see why Ford raised the price. But I sure as hell would rather pay $20k for a truck than $30k.
Indeed, X –
It’d be interesting to have seen how many Mavericks Ford would have sold at $20k. I’d bet enough to make up for the low profit margin. I think the market is crying for an affordable truck – and the current Maverick isn’t that. Neither is the Fathom. It’s halting – to me – that people (many people) see $30k as “affordable.” Especially when you factor in the cost of insurance and property taxes. Even assuming zero percent interest, a $30k vehicle financed over six years comes to $400/month – and good luck finding a zero percent car loan. So probably closer to $500/month. Then another $100/month for the insurance (on the low end). So, $600/month ($7,200 per year) is the New Affordable.
I have no words.
It’s a genuine mystery to me how people continue to buy shit. All you hear about is the “affordability crisis,” and they ain’t wrong. The cost of shit is outrageous — food, housing, cars, general contractors, medical care, etc.
Yet stuff keeps selling and the economy hasn’t collapsed (yet).
Rough rule of thumb is that you need a $100k annual household income to be working class these days, and probably $200k to be solidly middle class.
I have literally no idea where to even begin to get a job that pays me $100k. It makes me feel stupid, but I am genuinely clueless. All the jobs I see advertised are around $25 an hour (if that) with shitty hours and no benefits.
I think that the only jobs advertised are the crappy undesirable/low paying stuff. To get into a living wage you have to be in the system and know people. To get promoted doubly so. At least that’s been my observation since forever.
Hi X,
I agree with Ernie you have to know people. My husband just hired a young guy who is attending college to become an airplane mechanic. He is the son of one of his tech’s friends.
I am not a big advocate on this Linked In and Indeed BS. To me it is a money grab. It is all in who you know and getting your name on the list. References and referrals always hold more sway over Joe Blow from the street.
It’s tripleminusbad, even after you polished off your weekly ration of victory gin.
“The actual retail price – say it like Wink used to”
Was that Bob Barker, not Wink Martindale? Maybe I’m getting game shows mixed up.
Solid pass on Ford’s latest ‘lectric appliance. Out of curiosity I googled the dimensions & weight, but Ford hasn’t released those details. Like other EV trucks I suspect the range will tank if you want to tow or haul a load.
You’re right, MH – thanks for the catch!
Just fixed.