Ford Smart Mobility, LLC announced the acquisition of Spin—San Francisco-based electric scooter sharing company, which offers its customers the first- and last-mile transportation solution. The acquisition is a recent strategic action taken by Ford to solidify its hold on the mobility space. The company focuses on building a mobility portfolio that would allow its customers to find place in a simpler, faster, and cost-effective way. Joining the micro-mobility avenue would provide the company an enhanced acceleration in business while catering to customer needs.
Spin acquisition would help Ford X, a division within Ford Smart Mobility, LLC that aims to pilot, develop, and acquire new products and services in the transportation sector. Ford seems to look forward to the acquisition of Spin that has made its electric scooters available in five college campuses in the United States and across nine cities. With this acquisition deal, Ford could successfully expand its reach in the scooter business.
With the increasing mobility alternatives that are accessible for customers, it is observed that people utilize several forms of commute for a single trip. The mobility sector, therefore, requires companies to keep pace with the changing needs of the customers. Ford, strives to reflect these necessary transformations into its offerings. With this aim, Ford has turned to scooters that offers equitable last mile transport owing to the affordable solutions. Moreover, with the capabilities of reducing traffic congestion, pollution, and limitations in parking facilities, electric scooters are in for a promising future, in the coming years.
The company stated in a statement that as consumers across the world consider scooters as a feasible alternative for mobility, Ford recognizes it as a significant chance to work along with Spin. The acquisition of the dock-less Scooter Company would be a crucial step towards recognizing their strategy for the prospects of urban mobility, where the company, through its subsidiary known as ‘Jelly’, has already entered the electric scooter rental business recently.
Owing to the changing face of mobility, other manufacturers and automakers are also seen leveraging the potential reflected by this industry. In recent times, another leading automaker, General Motors Co had given a hint of its plan of introducing electric bicycles in the year 2019, although there was no such plan of entering electric scooter domain revealed. With these scenarios, the prevalence of energy-efficient transportation becomes even more evident.