Ford Motor to allow owners to rent their cars

Ford Motor plans to introduce a Peer-2-Peer programme, which would cut its credit customers' vehicle costs by enabling them to rent their cars. Though the idea of renting their car might not appeal to owners initially, but if they were offered money in exchange, then they could opt for it.

In the pilot programme, the company would sent invites to 14,000 people in the US who had used Ford Credit to buy their cars.

Ford Motor Credit will team up with two car-sharing companies: Getaround in the US and easyCar Club in London.

Ford said in a statement that it planned to expand research on advanced safety technology, including automatic braking, for its vehicle lineup over the next five years. ''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''.

Meanwhile, under the multi-modal mobility banner, Ford launched a third iteration of what it called an eBike, named the MoDe:Flex, which could be folded and stored inside any Ford vehicle where the battery could be charged while the bike was stowed.

Ford Motor was now officially the first manufacturer in the UK, which allowed customers to rent their vehicles to other drivers by paying an amount for the vehicle through the Ford finance package.

The company had merged with easyCar Club, and now allowed car owners to rent their vehicle via online registration. To take its  concept further, the company had introduced the pilot programe called Peer-2-Peer car sharing.

Ford's new programme was primarily designed to help customers offset monthly vehicle ownership costs. The company was now offering six-month pilot to customers in Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco, California, Washington, Chicago, and Portland, Ore.

Getaround – a San Francisco based startup would examine the software that the US invitees would use for renting their vehicles. According to David McClelland, Ford Credit's vice president of marketing, Ford owners in the US could get their vehicle registered with Getaround and decide when they wanted to make their vehicle available to a lender, and how much they wished to charge for it.