Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) is creating a new City Solutions team that will work with several major global cities to develop mobility solutions aimed at solving unique transportation challenges faced by each city. The company has selected San Francisco as the first city to implement this strategy, while discussions are on with several others.
Working toward this goal, Ford has signed an agreement to acquire a San Francisco-based crowd-sourced shuttle service called Chariot and has teamed up with bike-sharing provider Motivate. Through the acquisition of Chariot, Ford is planning to venture into the global shuttle services business.
Chariot currently operates around 100 Ford Transit shuttles along specific routes in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ford plans to expand shuttle services to five other markets in the next 18 months.
Meanwhile, the bike-sharing service Motivate is planning to work with Ford and San Francisco city officials to add new stations and increase the number of bikes to 7,000 in the Bay Area by 2018-end. Ford is planning to launch the GoBike service under its FordPass platform next year.
The addition of new modes of transport such as bikes and shuttles will diversify Ford’s revenue sources.
Zacks Rank
Ford currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). Some better-ranked automobile stocks include Spartan Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:SPAR) , Superior Industries International, Inc. (NYSE:SUP) and Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (NYSE:CPS) . All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
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