Fresh from his tenure as vice president of Ford Motor Co.'s mobility team, Marion Harris sees boundless potential in connected-vehicle technologies.
Harris, 50, returns to Ford Motor Credit Co. as CEO at a time of experimentation and technology investment across the automaker. Through early 2018, Harris was Ford Credit's CFO and was integral in the development of the captive lender's financial technology strategies, the company said. On the mobility side, Harris held responsibility for the automaker's mobile app, FordPass, which includes features tethered to Ford Credit's operations.
Unlocking the capabilities of connected-vehicle technology to improve customer experience and drive value to franchised dealers is among Harris' top priorities. Staff Reporters Jackie Charniga and Michael Martinez sat down with Harris to discuss improving the leasing experience, using connected technologies to monitor vehicle health and letting a connected car automatically call 911 after an accident. Here are edited excerpts.
Q: Where does Ford Credit fit in with Ford's connected-vehicle initiatives?
A: Connectivity is a game-changer for us. It really is. The job I was in before this was in the mobility group, and I had a responsibility for FordPass and for our commercial solutions. There are so many different things we can do for our customers to really take that customer experience to the next level. The list is so long; it's how do you choose what to do first and second and third and so on? For Ford Credit, there's a lot we can do to make the whole financing experience better. For example, in leasing, helping customers. Us knowing where they are in mileage, being able to offer different types of lease packages where maybe flexible lease and coverage is better. So we can say, "Hey, it looks like you're running short on miles" or the things we can do to help you maybe pre-purchase some extra miles or to think about your trade cycle or something like that. That's one set of possibilities.
Is that something that you're working toward?
We're considering a whole bunch of different things. We've had a pilot in the past around flexible mileage, and we've tried a number of different things. We'll continue to look at it. We had not rolled it out previously because the connectivity wasn't pervasive across our fleet. Now that it is, it gives us that opportunity to test and find the right products that our customers will want and value. Stuff like being able to buy miles in the middle of a lease — that's certainly on the list.
Ford Credit has launched an insurance product, Ford Insure, that uses connected technology to monitor driver behavior and send that information to Nationwide, which could potentially lower the driver's car insurance premiums. Besides that, how does a connected vehicle benefit the customer?
FordPass has a couple of things we refer to as first notification of service and first notification of loss. As a Ford customer, you'll see if you have a connected vehicle that you can check the oil status or tire status and so on. It lets you know as you get low on your oil life; it actually is not just based on mileage, it's based on the actual wear and tear of the oil. It'll let you know how soon you need an oil change and allow you to do dealer scheduling. It's all about taking away the pain points of ownership.
And the same thing on service. With a connected vehicle, the vehicle alerts us, the insurance company and the dealer — more importantly, emergency services first — when something happens. If you get into an accident, we know that you've been in an accident. That way, they can get to you as quickly as possible, get your vehicle repaired and get you back on the road.
[For customers who opt to use Ford Insure,] if you do get into a collision that's not threatening, it's got this collision support and it tells you everything to do, how to take pictures or documents for an insurance company. You can upload them automatically.
