Car owners are going to be able to rent their vehicles to other drivers in a pilot scheme launched in London.

Ford Motor Credit Company has invited 12,000 of its London customers to join the peer-to-peer scheme that will provide extra income to owners; and for pre-screened renters, a convenient, cost-effective way to rent a vehicle.

Ford Credit is exploring how innovations in vehicle financing could help create a convenient service to meet the changing demands of younger drivers.

The company is working with easyCar Club in London.

Renters search the easyCar Club site for a nearby car and book online.

The keys are collected from the owner, or accessed from a safe, and members drop the car back to the same location.

Surveys show that ‘millennials’ – those born between 1980 and the mid-1990s – are open to car-sharing opportunities that can save them money and make increased use of resources.  A recent report identified that people typically use online platforms to find extra income and flexibility.*

“There is consumer interest in sharing the cost of vehicle ownership, and this programme will help us understand to what extent that interest extends to customers who are financing a Ford vehicle,” said David McClelland, vice president, marketing, Ford Credit.

“Realistically, most vehicles are parked and out of use much of the time. This pilot will help us gauge our customers’ desire to pick up extra cash and keep their vehicles in use.”

Ford Credit customers in London can enroll to participate in the six-month pilot on the easyCar Club website now. The offer closes on August 1.

London participants must be a Ford Credit customer with a with a replacement value of £25,000 or less at the date of joining. In addition, the car must have fewer than 120,000 miles on the clock, be less than 10 years old, and be in insurance group 1 to 35.

Ford Motor Company recently announced it will begin making its London-based GoDrive car-sharing service available to the public.

The service offers flexible, practical and affordable access to a fleet of cars for one-way journeys with easy parking throughout the city.

Earlier this year, the company announced Ford Smart Mobility. This includes car-sharing experiments in Germany, India, and the US that will help the company determine how to best serve customers as they face new mobility options in the future.

Other Ford car-sharing experiments include:

  • Ford Carsharing, Germany: The first manufacturer-backed, nationwide car-sharing programme incorporating dealerships, has run for two years and recently expanded to 40 dealers in 67 cities with 135 locations. In partnership with multi-partner car-sharing company Flinkster, the service allows Ford Carsharing customers to use about 3,600 Flinkster vehicles, and Flinkster’s 270,000 customers to use the Ford fleet. Starting in 2015, customers can access a vehicle with a smartphone app, rather than a customer card
  • Share-Car, Bangalore, India: Ford is working with Zoomcar to test a sharing concept that would allow small groups, such as co-workers, apartment dwellers and families, to share a vehicle among multiple drivers. The approach helps consumers who can’t afford a car but want the benefits of owning one. The pilot programme is expected to expand to two more communities later this year
  • Dynamic Shuttle, New York and London: Exploring a shareable service that will offer point-to-point pick-up and drop-off on-demand. The experiment aims to better understand the social dynamics and routing requirements of shared transportation for city dwellers