Ford Names Its Sub-$30k Electric Pickup: FathomFordFord's upcoming affordable electric pickup has a name, and no, it's not Ranchero. Instead, the new midsize EV will be called Fathom, a name Ford unveiled Thursday as it revealed additional details about the truck ahead of its planned launch in the fall of 2027. With a starting price of $29,945—that's including destination, ensuring the promise of a sub-$30k sticker is an honest one—the Fathom is expected to be one of the least expensive electric pickups on the US market and the first model built on Ford's all-new Universal EV Platform.The truck sits at the heart of Ford's reworked EV strategy. After writing down billions of dollars in canceled electric vehicle programs and shelving a next-generation F-150 Lightning, the automaker has shifted its focus toward smaller, less expensive EVs designed to appeal to mainstream buyers rather than early adopters.The Fathom will also introduce a new manufacturing process at Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant, according to a Reuters report. Instead of a traditional linear assembly line, the truck will be built using three parallel production streams that come together late in the manufacturing process, a system Ford says should improve efficiency and lower production costs.AdvertisementAdvertisementAs for the name, Ford says it grew out of years of customer research. A fathom originally referred to the span of a person's outstretched arms before becoming a nautical measurement for water depth. The word is now more commonly associated with understanding something deeply—which Ford says it's trying to do with this new generation of truck buyers.Fathom will seat five adults and offer more passenger space than a Toyota RAV4, says Ford. Standard equipment is expected to include a large touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a front trunk, bidirectional power capability, digital key functionality, and BlueCruise hands-free driving capability.The Fathom is also expected to be the first model of an entirely new family of electric vehicles developed by Ford's California-based "skunkworks" team, which has been tasked with rethinking how the automaker designs and builds EVs to compete with both Tesla and rapidly growing Chinese players.It's also a welcome shift, away from chasing ever-larger batteries and six-figure price tags to figuring out how to put electric vehicles within reach of more buyers. So if Ford can deliver on its pricing and performance targets, the Fathom should be one of the industry's most closely watched launches, EV or otherwise.