Ford Motor Credit Co. ended its Austin-Texas based shared-lease program — originally launched as a centerpiece of its mobility efforts back in March — without signing up one group, Communications Manager Margaret Mellott told Auto Finance News.
The company has no plans to launch another shared-lease program in the foreseeable future, she added. The captive did, however, glean value from consumer concerns for future mobility programs through the experience, she said.
“Anecdotally, what we were learning from people who were interested is that they didn’t necessarily have two to five people in mind who they could ask to share a lease,” Mellott said. “There were some people who were interested in participating, but didn’t have a group and were looking for assistance in actually putting together a group.”
Consumers also expressed concern for the fact that everyone who signs the contract would be held liable for the full payment, even if one person became delinquent, unlike other car-sharing models that rely on fleets, Mellott said.
“We absolutely learned a lot from this pilot,” she said. “We don’t have anything like this in our planning right now, but we took a lot of lessons, we kind of pivoted, and we continue to look at other ways Ford Credit is going to be able to provide financing in the sharing economy and across mobility in the future.”
