What's in Your Wallet? If Ford Has Its Way, It'll Be a Blue Oval

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

Ford has teamed up with the payment company Stripe in a five-year deal to leverage what they’re calling “automotive e-commerce and payments”. According to marketers in the Glass House, this arrangement will help facilitate transactions for vehicle services and products such as EV charging.

And if you think it couldn’t lead to subscription services for features we currently take for granted in vehicles today, we have some seaside property in Montana to sell you.

Anyone who has ever toiled in a revenue-driven industry will tell you that monthly recurring charges are the gold standard for profitability. In most instances, MRC rolls in without too much effort after the initial sale and tends to be very lucrative. If car companies can worm their way into our wallets in the same way services such as satellite radio have managed to do while withdrawing a monthly fee for a feature, you can bet they will be jumping all over themselves to do so.

Some brands have already dabbled in this tempestuous sea. Recall that bedwetting accountants at BMW floated the idea of making heated seats a subscription-based service, an idea that died a quick death after public backlash. Ford isn’t there yet, but a tie-up with Stripe certainly sets the table for this type of activity should the company choose to go that route at some point in the future.

For now, Ford says it’s all part of the Ford+ plan, a strategy described by the company as an effort to generate deep loyalty and always-on customer relationships. At an event last May, head honcho Jim Farley related how the company would deploy Ford+ as part of its effort to break away from the build-and-sell business model which has typified the car racket since its inception a century ago.

Ford has also inked an agreement with ADT, a company commonly associated with home security, with eyes on leveraging vehicle camera technology as another arrow in the quiver of surveillance general security. Planned to be called Canopy, the system calls for “multi-sensor security systems” designed for rigs like the F-150 pickup truck and Transit van. Ford and ADT say the gear will be easily installable by customers to protect expensive work and recreational equipment.

As for the payment system, the rollout of Stripe technology is expected to begin in the second half of 2022, starting on this continent.

[Image: Ford]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • Funky D Funky D on Jan 20, 2022

    "Ford says it’s all part of the Ford+ plan, a strategy described by the company as an effort to generate deep loyalty and always-on customer relationships." Sooooooo, I'm guessing that building deep loyalty by selling quality durable vehicles people actually want at reasonable prices is not longer a goal?

  • Stuki Stuki on Jan 20, 2022

    "..a strategy described by the company as an effort to generate deep loyalty and always-on customer relationships. .." The mere fact that financialization provides people (anti)thinking like this with access to the reins of once great American industrial companies, is what a large part of the "once" stems from.... Build better cars for better prices, dimbulb. And if you can't contribute, narrowly, to doing exactly that, go find something less destructive to do with yourself.

  • Theflyersfan Excellent dealer - 2 years scheduled maintenance included from the dealer (not Mazda) as part of the deal. One warranty repair - a bolt had to be tightened in the exhaust system. Only out of pocket were the winter tires and a couple of seasons of paying to get them swapped on and off. So about $1000 for the tires, $80 for each tire swap and that's it.
  • EBFlex You can smell the desperation.
  • Safeblonde MSRP and dealer markup are two different things. That price is a fiction.
  • Del Varner Does anyone have a means to bypass the automobile data collection?
  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh two cam sensors p0024, a cam solenoid, 2 out of pocket TSB trans flushes for the pos chevy transmission 8l45 under recall lawsuit , Tsb 18-NA-355, 2 temperature sensors and a ##ing wireing harness because the dealer after the 2nd visit said the could not find out why the odb2 port and usb ports kept blowing fuses.This 2018 truck is my last domestic vehicle, the last good domestic i had was a 1969 straight 6 chevy nova with a Offenhauserintake and a 4 barrel. Only buying toyota going forward.
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