The giant carmaker Ford Motor hopes to speed up the new car buying process with the introduction of an online load program powered by AutoFi. Ford Motor is also making an investment in the Bay Area startup which has already raised $20 million.
According to USA Today, AutoFi has been working exclusively in the used car space where it was connecting buyers with lenders through its web and smartphone based platform. The deal with the giant automaker Ford Motor Credit Company is AutoFi’s first partnership with a so-called captive lender. Ford’s credit division is still focused on loans for new and leased vehicle sales. The program will debut through the Ricart Ford dealership in Groveport, Ohio and it will gradually expand to other dealerships across the country.
Ford’s Credit director of mobility, Lee Jelenic said that with the experience AutoFi has in used vehicles online financing and well-developed platform, they will make it easier for people to adopt new technology quickly and to meet evolving consumer expectation. Also, the CEO of AutoFi, Kevin Singerman said the company’s platform will help people to cut time spent arranging on financing and improving the experience dealerships can deliver to their customers.
The giant carmaker Ford Motor has a special sort of love for the keypad it includes on most cars’ B-pillars, according to C-Net’s report. If one patent is an indicator, they may soon pick up some additional skills. One of Ford’s recent published patents imagines a B-pillar keypad on an electronic vehicle. This keypad is not capable of locking and unlocking the vehicle but also like other keypads, it serves the additional purpose of telling the owner how much charge remains in the car’s battery. This could work in various ways.
There could also be a battery indicator below a traditional keypad arrangement or the whole B-pillar’s worth of keypad could become one giant battery indicator while a vehicle is charging. On the other hand, it could disappear because nobody wants a bunch of drunk teenagers attempting to brute force your car’s code at night.
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