Ford and Deutsche Bahn Connect GmbH are to start running a bike share scheme in Germany with 3,200 FordPass bikes.

Ford of Germany and Deutsche Bahn Connect Collaborate

The collaboration is an extension of the two firms’ existing working on car sharing and will see the bikes made available from October in both Cologne and Düsseldorf and accessed through Deutsche Bahn’s Call a Bike hire system.

Customers will be able to use the FordPass mobile app to register for the Call a Bike service, find the nearest available bicycle and pay for it online.

Ford, as with other carmakers, is increasingly focusing on holistic mobility solutions and recently appointed Sarah-Jayne Williams as its first-ever director for smart mobility, which will see Williams work closely with European city planners, public transport agencies and communities to create new mobility solutions. Ford is also working on ride sharing solutions, including its crowd-sourced Chariot shuttle service, which has expanded into new cities this year to provide in-app ride booking for commuters, including in New York.

The bike sharing collaboration with Deutsche Bahn was announced at New Mobility World, the forum on future mobility at the Frankfurt Motor Show, with Wolfgang Kopplin, deputy chairman, Ford of Germany, commenting: “We launched a joint car sharing project four years ago as part of Ford’s expansion into mobility services. Our bike sharing project is yet another step on the way to implementing this strategy. It will enable us to supplement transportation systems in the cities with a completely pollution-free component and provide an environmentally friendly, and low-cost service for increasing numbers of customers.”