Ford Targets Small Business Owners with Electric Vehicles

In a push to be more accommodating to small businesses, Ford is aiming to provide electric vehicles to the likes of plumbers and electricians.

Ford Targets Small Business Owners with Electric Vehicle Ownership

Ford Pro, an arm of Ford focused on commercial customer productivity and providers of a work-ready suite of vehicles, products and services, will offer a one-stop electric vehicle shopping service for small businesses.

The one-stop solution will include everything from financing the car to charging energy, to software and physical vehicle repairs.

Small Business Benefits of Electric Vehicles

Transitioning to electric vehicles can be a savvy move for small businesses. EV cars offer significantly reduced transport costs, particularly for fleet vehicles, which regularly make long journeys. These types of vehicles also have lower operating costs when compared to diesel and petrol equivalents.

There is also a number of financial incentives for businesses which operate electric vehicles, including tax and duty exemptions.

Running a more energy efficient vehicle can also help a business reduce its carbon footprint, and, by doing so, boost its environment and corporate responsibility reputation.

Ford is committed to helping small businesses, many of which operate in the services industry, to make owning an electric vehicle a reality, by offering financing, repair services and the full electric vehicle ‘package.’

Financing Solutions

The initiative is being pushed by Jim Farley, CEO for Ford, who told Fox Business: “Now we want to move into the services business, and those customers, most of them are small business. They own five or six vehicles or are a plumber, electrician. They are underserved customers with data and telematics.

“They don’t have good financing options. They have to pick from all sorts of smaller telematics companies that aren’t integrated into the vehicle… And they have no idea how to charge these vehicles,” Farley continued.

Ford Pro is powered by the customer relationship management platform for customer service and support, Salesforce Cloud.

By providing a one-stop shopping solution, small businesses can benefit from a more seamless and efficient transition to electric vehicle ownership.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "Ford Targets Small Business Owners with Electric Vehicles" was first published on Small Business Trends