Ford Fathom cheap pickup EV, Audi A2, Trump on EVs, and more

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
Welcome to the new episode of the Electrek Podcast. Sorry for that. This week's episode is sponsored by GM. GM EV charging made easy with Energy Pass and Plug and Charge. You can learn more at gminergy.gm.com/energypass.
We're gonna have a little bit more to say about them later on the show. But we have plenty to talk about this week. Let's start out talking about the biggest news of the week. There was a pre-announcement on the Ford cheap, affordable electric pickup truck. We get now the actual name for it, and we get the price for it. So it's the FATOM and it's $28,350.
So I'm gonna let you, Seth, talk a little bit about this exciting new pickup truck while I try to figure this out right now.

**Seth** (0:57)
Sounds good. So, you know, we've been hearing about the Slate and the, what was it?
The Telo for a little bit now. These are very small pickup trucks that are selling for sub $330,000 prices. This seems to be Ford recognizing there's a huge demand for inexpensive pickup trucks. I think Ford was probably planning this a little bit further along in the line up maybe a few years ago. Obviously, they're not just coming out with this now, but it does seem to be the new thing is a smaller electric pickup truck. Obviously, Ford has done a pretty good job with the Maverick and the Maverick Hybrid. Those are both ICE vehicles and without plugs, but those have been quite popular. I think this thing looks to be in that same realm, maybe a little bit more sporty, maybe a little bit less work truck and more just fancy car. Not fancy car, but just like a-

**SPEAKER_1** (2:11)
Everyday truck that people don't use as a truck basically.

**Seth** (2:14)
That's right. Yeah. Occasionally, you can throw something in the back.
I'm on Black Island right now, and apparently rules don't apply here. So people just drive around and pick up trucks with people in the back. So I don't know if that's something that's going to come back or not, but it certainly seems like a fun way to get around. I'm sure that would be lovely here.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:40)
One thing that I should add to that was confirmed is that a range of 300 miles is for the extended range version of the vehicle. So the price announced $28,350 before delivery fee. So with delivery fees is basically a $30,000 truck. Is for the base version, which we don't have a range for the base version, but it's not going to be the 300 mile range of the extended range. So it's something to keep into account. But I mean, my main takeaway from this is that they just, you know, cut the grass right under the feet of a slate. Right? Because a slate is, you know, $25,000, $3,000 less. But you get, I mean, we were making some assumptions here because we don't know all the details of the truck just yet. I won't know until the end of the year or even early because they didn't say when it's going to be unveiled fully, but they said that they're going to take pre-orders early 2027 for deliveries later in 2027 So we should know more around that time.
But in the meantime, we know that it's, you know, there's a full cab. So there's a back seat.
We know that, I mean, I assume it's going to like, it's going to have a screen, everything. It says it comes with Apple Maps built in. There's, you know, there's navigation. There's a lot of things. So it's not a bare-bone, you know, AC and that's about it, like the Slate. So you get a lot more truck for, you know, very little money more than the Slate. So I think they are the one that's going to be heard the most from that. At the same time, the Slate has its own little quirkiness to it, the little, you know, modular aspect and self-modification that you can do to the truck.
I'm sure that's going to find its own little niche market. But yeah, I think overall, the Phantom, I don't know about the name, though. Ford Fathom?

**Seth** (4:42)
Yeah, it's weird. It's sort of like Phantom, but Fathom. Can you Fathom that?

**SPEAKER_1** (4:47)
Yeah. Is there another meaning to that? No.

**Seth** (4:49)
No, I don't think so.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:50)
Yeah.
Can you Fathom that we've made a truck, and then an all-electric truck with over 300 miles of range for less than $30,000? Is that? So I don't know about the name, but everything else, I think, they nailed it, and look, little caveat. The Lightning, when the Lightning was first announced, it was supposed to be cheaper, and then by the time it hit production, it was more expensive, just like the Cybertruck. So we still need to see them deliver the vehicle and see the spec of the vehicle for that price. But the way things are going, I'm optimistic about the vehicle program.