Ford has confirmed that its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky is on track to begin producing its upcoming all-electric midsize truck, the Fathom, in 2027. The vehicle is expected to be priced under $30,000 and will be the first model built on the company’s new universal platform.

The automaker’s $2 billion investment in the plant, made two years ago, involved replacing the traditional moving assembly line with a new “universal production system.” This system, developed by a skunkworks team led by former Tesla executive Alan Clarke, uses a three-branched assembly approach. Large single-piece aluminum castings, a technique popularized by Tesla, will be used to reduce parts count and allow separate assembly of the front, rear, and battery sections before final assembly.

Ford says prototype builds of the Fathom are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2027, with customer deliveries later that year. The company is already testing production-level tooling and has nearly tripled the factory’s Wi-Fi access point density to 1,080 to support high-bandwidth, low-latency software quality checks.

The new system is expected to enable a net 15% faster assembly time compared to previous models built at the plant. Some employees have already spent months training on the new system at Ford’s New Models Program Development Center in Allen Park, Michigan.

This overhaul is part of Ford’s broader effort to catch up in the EV market, where competitors like Tesla and Chinese automakers have gained ground with profitable, high-volume vehicles. The company’s previous EV efforts have weighed on its profitability.

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