Ford (F) To Launch Ford GoBike For San Francisco Riders

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is set to launch its “Ford GoBike” service in the San Francisco Bay Area from Jun 28. The service is in collaboration with Motivate, the global leader in bike-share technology.

The service “Ford GoBike” is a bike-sharing program, designed to easily move around in San Francisco. Few of its features include a sturdy aluminum frame with an adjustable, padded seat, which is water-resistant. The bikes have brakes within the frame, puncture-resistant tires and multiple motion-activated lights making riders visible in the dark.

The bikes also have a continuous changeable hub, offering a wide gear range, allowing bikers to choose the right level of resistance from Mission Flats to Oakland Hills and everywhere in between.

Under the “Ford GoBike” program, approximately 3,500 bikes will be available throughout San Francisco by this summer-end. These numbers are going to double in late 2018.

A rider can book these bikes manually or via application. One may visit a station and rent a bike or book the nearest available bike through FordPass or FordGo app.

In Sep 2016, Ford had undertaken the responsibility to develop public-private partnerships with various cities and find ways to tackle the growing struggle on transportation infrastructure as population is also on an eternal overspill. The company has dedicated a special team known as “City Solutions” to solve this menace.

Besides this bike service program, the company offers a crowd-sourced shuttle service, known as Chariot. Ford plans to expand such shuttle services to eight cities by 2017-end.

To promote use of electric vehicles for long distance travels, Ford is teaming up with BMW, Daimler (NYSE:F) and Volkswagen (OTC:VLKAY) to set up an electric charging network in Europe, based on Combined Charging System standard technology. Construction of the charging stations will commence in 2017 with an initial goal of 400 locations. Within 2020, the companies aim to build a network of thousand such charging points. This move targets to facilitate adoption of electric vehicles in Europe.

Price Performance

Ford shares have underperformed the Zacks categorized Auto Manufacturers-Domestic industry in the last three months. The company’s shares have declined 4.9% compared with the industry’s 6.1% advance.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Ford currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

One of the better-ranked companies in the auto space is Cummins Inc. (NYSE:CMI) , flaunting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Cummins has an expected long-term growth rate of 11.7%.

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