DUNTON, England, March 6 (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co’s ( FN ) push to use data feeds generated by its vans and trucks, from engines to oil filters to brake pads, to attract more customers in the European and North American commercial vehicle market. is played on a 9-metre-long (30-foot) screen at the UK headquarters in Dunton, east London.
During a recent visit by Reuters, this display showed real-time data from 114,000 vans in Britain so far covered by Ford’s FordLiive monthly subscription service.
Ford employees focused on the 98.3% of vans that were in service – and of those, about 8% needed repairs fairly soon or urgently – but they focused even more on the 1 .7% of vehicles out of service.
The US carmaker tracks 4,000 data points via modems it has installed in all commercial vehicles since 2019, and can warn paying customers of engine issues and basics such as wear from brake pads, low oil or diesel additives that are cheap to proactively maintain but expensive to fix. if not addressed.
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The carmaker has connected all its UK dealers to its system, so it can organize repairs and have parts ready for vans before they arrive at a dealership.
Ford, which leads the commercial vehicle market in both Europe and the United States, launched the system in 2021. Hans Schep, European head of Ford Pro, the company’s commercial vehicle business, said it is already on track to ‘achieve the long-term goals of increasing. vehicle “uptime” up to 60%.
Ford estimates that idle time, when a van is out of action, costs an average of £600 ($724) per day per van.
“This has already been a huge game changer,” Schep said.
After a successful trial in Great Britain, Ford is also rolling out the FORDLiive service in continental Europe and the United States. The automaker has focused more on its profitable Ford Pro business in Europe than lower-margin mass-market passenger cars.
Ford recently announced engineering job cuts in Europe, but is still hiring software experts for its data services.
Data is a huge battleground for commercial vehicle manufacturers, and the competition will only intensify with electric models, which are essentially computers on wheels.
Using data to show where vans are, how they use fuel, how drivers use or misuse them, whether they can skip an oil change, but above all avoiding downtime is becoming as important as the time itself vehicles
There is also an ongoing battle pitting insurers, leasing companies and auto repair shops with European Union automakers over access to connected car data and the huge potential revenue it could generate.
“We intend to grow our leadership position,” said Ted Cannis, CEO of Ford Pro. “We’re going to have many, many more markets that we weren’t even in.”
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Electric vans provide many more data points for Ford and its rivals to work with, including tracking how much range they have left and offering easy and comprehensive charging solutions.
Ford’s Schep said providing this data is crucial for van fleets because, according to the automaker’s research, 60 percent of its corporate customers “are very concerned about the path to electric.”
The UK operations of DHL Express, part of Deutsche Post DHL Group ( DPWGn.DE ), have 270 electric Ford E Transit vans with firm orders for 120 more, and are signing up to FordLiive.
Fleet manager Richard Crook said that apart from monitoring the batteries in these vans, he wants to take advantage of Ford’s predictive maintenance capabilities.
“We have to get ahead of ourselves and plan maintenance schedules because the vehicle is really telling you ‘I have a problem,'” Crook said.
Ford rival General Motors Co ( GM.N ) has also launched telematics services that include “in-vehicle coaching,” where a voice nicknamed “Karen in the vehicle” coaches drivers against excessive braking, speeding or other bad habits.
Michelle Calloway, director of OnStar Business Solutions at GM, said “Karen” reduced fuel consumption by 30 percent in 30 days in one customer’s fleet.
“These are shocking savings scaled across a large fleet,” Calloway said.
Starting with 2024 models, GM will offer a range of free OnStar data services for fleet vehicles. Ed Peper, who heads GM’s fleet sales, said that once customers try these services, they’re likely to pay more.
Italian truck, van and bus maker Iveco Group NV ( IVG.MI ) has around 150,000 vehicles connected via telematics services and has seen a 30 percent increase in uptime, as well as a drop “from single digit percent” of warranty costs so far, the chief said. technology officer Marco Liccardo.
Liccardo estimates that subscription services will generate 40% to 50% of commercial vehicle manufacturers’ profits by 2030 and help franchise dealers survive the shift to electric with fewer parts to service.
“Data will be the oxygen to do that,” Liccardo said.
($1 = 0.8289 pounds)
Reporting by Nick Carey in Dunton, England Additional reporting by Giulio Piovaccari in Milan Editing by Matthew Lewis
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
