Ford announced it would acquire Chariot, a shuttle-van startup based in San Francisco, in order to expand beyond auto manufacturing and become a mobility company. This is the first acquisition by Ford Smart Mobility, which was established in March of 2016 in order to focus on “emerging mobility services.” Ford reportedly paid $65 million for Chariot.
Chariot uses 100 Ford Transit vans to offer rides to commuters along 28 routes in the San Francisco Bay Area. After the acquisition, Chariot will leverage Ford’s expertise in logistics and vehicle operations as well as use data algorithms to schedule trips in real time. Together Chariot and Ford plan to expand to at least five more markets. Ford already has shuttle programs in Kansas City, Missouri, and Dearborn Michigan. Ford intends to focus on other forms of transportation including bikes, dynamic shuttles and more, according to Jim Hackett, the chairman of Ford Smart Mobility.
Ford will also partner with Motivate to expand a bike sharing program in the Bay Area. Through the partnership, the program will grow to from 700 to 7,000 bikes and be renamed Ford GoBike.
Auto Manufacturing in Decline
To put it nicely, the outlook for auto manufacturing is pretty bleak. Competitors like Zipcar, Uber and Lyft and new technologies have disrupted the traditional automotive industry. Consumers today are buying fewer cars and option for public transportation or car sharing instead. The trend is not limited to millennials, in fact, according to a study published by University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, fewer middle-aged adults in their 30s and 40s had driver’s licenses in 2014 than did in 1983. Ford is by no means the only car manufacturer to see that its market is shrinking. Earlier this year GM invested $500 million in Lyft to invest in self-driving car partnership.
How to Grow in a Shrinking Market
What’s your market outlook? While your business may be profitable today, if you’re in a shrinking market, future growth will be challenging. Faced with a declining market, now is the time to consider your options and next steps to ensure long term growth. You made focus on building your own solution organically or you may decide to partner with another company to rapidly gain access to a new market. In the case of Ford, the acquisition will allow the company to rapidly gain a foothold in the growing market of ride-sharing and alternate means of transportation.
