Ford has announced its upcoming all-electric Fathom pickup. This all-electric pickup truck from Fathom may make electric vehicles a bit more practical.
In a 27th October statement, Ford said the 2027 Fathom is expected to deliver more than 10kW of AC power. The vehicle should also enable home energy management by allowing drivers to tap into the battery when electric prices are high, and act as a backup in outages.
Common EV batteries store electric power as direct current (DC); however, most of the devices in our homes run on alternating current (AC). Bidirectional systems thus require power-conversion equipment to enable energy to flow between the vehicle and the home. Adding more of this ability to the car would also be cheaper hardware-wise and easier to install.
Ford says its system will support the company’s Home Power Station and, for backup operation, a home backup panel that’s compatible. The system is designed to enable vehicle-to-home (V2H) capabilities.
This demonstrates how electric vehicle (EV) engineering is opening up to energy management in the home. But final power levels will be governed by the equipment used, the installation specifications, the state of charge of the batteries and local power grid laws. The showable power figures must not be mistaken for verified real-world capabilities.
Why it matters
Power electronics that can send power in both directions in an EV could someday mean the car can become a mobile energy-storage station, with no need for backup batteries and generators.
