Unlike previous announcements centred on the platform’s engineering, battery technology and production strategy, the latest update focuses on the production model’s identity. According to Ford, the target customer differs from traditional pickup buyers, influencing decisions ranging from the vehicle’s packaging to its price point.
“The blueprint for Ford’s new midsize electric truck — from the engineering to its name — came from one place: a deep understanding of the person who would drive it,” said Kay Hart, General Manager of Ford’s Model e division.
Ford says the name thus needed to represent more than capability and devoted considerable attention to the naming process itself. Rather than following the alphanumeric naming convention common in the automotive industry, Ford wanted the new pickup to have what it describes as ‘personality’ and ‘a soul.’
According to Hart, the word ‘Fathom’ appealed because of its multiple meanings. Historically, a fathom was the span of a person’s outstretched arms, and later became a nautical unit equal to six feet (1.83 metres) for measuring water depth. Over time, the verb “to fathom” also came to mean understanding something completely.
“A name about measuring what you can’t see, that grew into a word about understanding. For a truck that started with years of trying to understand a specific customer, that was the whole brief in six letters,” she explained.
