Ford Testing Car-Sharing Program

(RTTNews) - Automaker Ford Motor Co. (F) will launch a pilot car-sharing program for select customers in six U.S. cities and in London.

Ford Motor Credit said the pilot program, "Peer-2-Peer Car Sharing," will be offered to 14,000 customers in six U.S. cities and to 12,000 customers in London.

Under the program, the selected customers can sign up to rent their Ford Credit-financed vehicles to other pre-screened drivers for short-term use. The car-sharing program will enable these customers to offset their monthly vehicle payments.

U.S. customers can participate through the web-based, mobile-friendly software of ride-share company Getaround, while London drivers can connect through a similar rental system of easyCar Club.

David McClelland, Ford Credit vice president of marketing said, "Consumers tell us they are interested in sharing the costs of vehicle ownership, and this program will help us understand how much that extends to customers who are financing a Ford vehicle. As most vehicles are parked and out of use much of the time, this can help us gauge our customers' desires to pick up extra cash and keep their vehicles in use."

Ford is offering the pilot program to select Ford Credit customers in California - including Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco; as well as in Portland, Oregon; Chicago and Washington, D.C. It runs through November.

The car-sharing program was announced by Ford as part of the next phase of its Ford Smart Mobility plan that was introduced in January 2015. The next phase of the program moves from research to the start of implementation, new pilot programs and new mobility product experiments.

Ford Smart Mobility is the company's plan to deliver the next level in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and big data.

According to Ford, following six months of gathering data and consumer insights, it is now honing in on two strategic areas - flexible use and ownership of vehicles, and multimodal urban travel solutions.

Ford shared insights from some of its more than 25 mobility experiments, including the Dynamic Shuttle mobility experiment - an on-demand ride-sharing service in New York and London.

The experiment showed how Ford vehicles should be modified to make it most accommodating to consumers by providing transparent fares and travel times, amenities such as Wi-Fi, and a less-than-five- minute walk from the pick-up and drop-off points.