Ford produces more than 5,000 structural unicastings for Fathom electric pickup ahead of 2027 US launch
Ford has passed 5,000 large aluminium castings for its Fathom midsize electric pickup, with two castings per truck replacing 146 parts, as prototype builds and process testing continue at Louisville ahead of a planned 2027 launch.
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Ford reaches 5,000 castings milestone
Ford has produced more than 5,000 large aluminium "unicastings" for the Fathom, its upcoming midsize electric pickup, as it fine-tunes the manufacturing process ahead of a planned 2027 launch. Each truck uses two of the castings, one at the front and one at the rear, replacing 146 individual stamped and welded parts. The update comes from Vladimir Bogachuk, Ford's chief engineer of advanced vehicle structure architecture, in a post on Ford's From the Road blog, reported by Electrek. The US-market Fathom carries a stated price of US$28,350. 1
The milestone marks the clearest signal yet that Ford is committing to the large-casting manufacturing approach Tesla popularised with its Giga Press. The Fathom is the first vehicle built on Ford's Universal EV platform, which industry coverage has described as incorporating LFP batteries, unicastings and zonal electrical architecture, according to Charged EVs. 12
How the castings are made and inspected
According to Ford's engineering blog post, as reported by Electrek, the castings are produced at Ford's Shelbyville Technical Center and shipped to Louisville Assembly Plant for process testing and prototype builds. Ford melts aluminium ingots at about 1,300°F (700°C) and injects the metal into either a front or rear structure mold. Each part then goes into a quench tank, is trimmed and machined, and passes a series of checks: industrial X-ray scans for pores and voids, dimensional measurement in a climate-controlled room, optical surface scans, and laboratory tensile and chemistry tests on samples. 1
Nothing ships to Louisville until a batch clears every inspection. Ford says it is also working on cutting cycle time and on designing the castings for "modular repairability" — an area under development, not a proven repair-cost outcome. Repair cost has been the principal objection to large castings across the industry, since a damaged one-piece structure can turn a moderate crash into a write-off; Electrek notes that Lucid executive Cory Steuben has said insurance concerns drove that company's decision to skip gigacasting altogether. 1
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