NEW DELHI: With car-buyers staying away from the market in view of the global slowdown, more and more carmakers look beyond automobile manufacturing to survive.
Big car-makers are investing in start-ups, and looking at other avenues to raise revenue. Leader of the Detroit Big Three, General Motors invested in cab-hailing app company Lyft, the American rival of Uber. The number one car-maker, Toyota invested in Uber, Europe’s biggie Volkswagen in Gett, and German luxury brand BMW in carpooling firm Scoop.
The latest is Ford, and the company has specific plans for India. With its recent investment in Zoomcar – part of the car-rental company’s $24 million fund-raising round – Ford entered ridesharing, and opened a third battle front in India – so far limited to Uber and its Indian rival Ola, which are betting on ride-sharing as the future of mobility.
Ride-sharing allows car owners to use their vehicles to share a ride with strangers, by logging on to an app, which helps them split the cost (Indian regulations prevent ride-sharing firms from charging a commission, as they do in the US).
Ford confirmed to HT via email that it has started a bunch of experiments with Zoomcar in ‘smart mobility’. One of them is Share-Car, which allows small groups of people to rent cars from Zoomcar on a roster basis, and share a fixed number of vehicles.
“This would mean that vehicle-scheduling (the roster shows when the car is free) and ownership (given at the time of use – what should be the pay-for-play model) are being explored,” the company said.
{{/usCountry}}“This would mean that vehicle-scheduling (the roster shows when the car is free) and ownership (given at the time of use – what should be the pay-for-play model) are being explored,” the company said.
{{/usCountry}}“The automaker is trying out different things in different countries, and its investment in Zoomcar is one such experiment… Ford is one carmaker that realises car-ownership in future will not be same as it is right now,” said Anil Sharma, analyst with IHS World Markets Automotive.
Its investment in Zoomcar ensures a captive client for Ford. As ride-sharing grows, demand for Ford cars will grow. Zoomcar is present in seven tier-I cities with 1.5 million app downloads.
In the US, Ford has acquired Chariot, a San Francisco-based ride-sharing shuttle startup, and Motivate, a bike-sharing service.