i3 - September/October 2016 - 22

Erica Klampfl, global mobility solutions manager at Ford
Motor Co. in Dearborn, MI. While Ford's core business is to
sell vehicles, the company is also "looking to create great
services." Klampfl says, "It's all part of a connected strategy
for the future. As we explore the space around services and
emerging opportunities, this drives insight back into our core
business and how we can deliver better products."
Last year Ford launched a car sharing service in London,
with a fleet split evenly between electric vehicles (EVs) and
Fiesta compact cars powered by the automakers 1-liter Ecoboost (gasoline) engine. Among the findings from this service
is that almost 50 percent of the users chose an electric vehicle,
and 97 percent picked an EV after their initial experience with
it, Klampfl notes.
Ford also launched the Go Ride Intelligent Shuttle for
employees at its Dearborn campus. They can summon a Ford
Transit passenger van via an app for on-demand shared transportation. Go Ride aims to make the experience as seamless as
possible for both the driver and the passenger, Klampf adds.
Ford's new subsidiary named Ford Smart Mobility LLC, with
facilities in Dearborn and Palo Alto, launched with a mission to
"design, build, grow and invest in emerging mobility services."
These include commercially ready services it creates and those
developed by tech companies. Klampfl emphasizes that Ford's
strategy involves both vehicles and services. This combination
gives Ford "a great advantage," she says.
Ford also invested $182.2 million in Pivotal, a cloud-based
software company in San Francisco, to "expand the use of

advanced software development methodologies, analytics tools
and a cloud platform throughout Ford's product development
and IT teams, including new software labs to support Ford
Smart Mobility." The investment caps a partnership between
Ford and Pivotal, which developed FordPass, a consumerfacing digital and physical services platform that offers a car
sharing service.
Other automakers are following similar strategies. "Over the
next five years the automotive
industry is going to change
more than it has in the past
50," says Annalisa Bluhm, a
spokesperson for Maven LLC,
a General Motors subsidiary
that operates car sharing
services in the U.S. and abroad.
By 2025, ABI Research predicts
"The changes and the disrupthere will be 200 million users
of ridesharing services. And by
tion that we've seen relative to
2030, the number of people using
vehicle ownership are massive
driverless car/shuttle sharing
and they can't be ignored."
services will swell to 400 million.
Global trends including
Automakers have taken note and
increased
traffic congestion
are experimenting.
Jaguar Land Rover launched
in cities, constrained financInMotion, a subsidiary to develop
ing and decreased access to
on-demand services and apps
credit, have led to a "shift away
for smartphones and other confrom a traditional model," she
nected devices. Real-world beta
says. "That is something that
testing of its first initiatives
include car sharing services and
will shape the auto industry
"car ownership solutions" in
profoundly, in addition to all
North America, Europe and Asia.
the technology that we now
"InMotion combines the flexibility
have." Car sharing is "step one"
and pace needed to compete
toward the changes, Bluhm
in the ever-changing mobility
sector," says Adrian Hallmark,
adds. The evolutionary path
group strategy director at Jaguar
ultimately leads GM to a
Land Rover in Whitley, UK. "It
"multimodal future" that gives
allows us to react quickly to new
"freedom of transportation to
tech and ever-changing customer
more people."
demands."
Meanwhile, Toyota and RenaultGM also tests services with
Nissan have been engaging in
employees. Future products are
car sharing services in Asia and
tested at the company's camEurope since 2014 - Renault-Nispus at Rüsselsheim, Germany.
san in France, Malaysia and Japan,
Maven operates employee
and Toyota in France - points
out Colin Bird, senior analyst at
car sharing and peer-to-peer
IHS. Toyota added the island of
programs at GM campuses in
Okinawa to its experiment roster
Brazil, China, Germany and
last fall, with a yearlong trial of
the U.S. that let an employee
its car sharing service partnering
borrow another's vehicle or
with local tourism associations
and the JTB Group travel agency.
hitch a ride for a fee.
GM says the half-billion

Ridesharing
Takes Off

Over the next five years the automotive industry is going
22

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

i3 - September/October 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - September/October 2016