Ford
’s
F
micromobility subsidiary — Spin — recently announced an integration with
Alphabet
GOOG
owned Google Maps. Through this collaboration, Google Maps users can now discover Spin’s electric scooters and bikes on the app while planning their trips in 84 cities, campuses, and towns across the United States, Canada, Germany, and Spain.
This integration will not only help Google Maps users locate, on real-time basis, the closest available Spin vehicle but the app will also provide additional details like how long it will take to walk to the vehicle as well as the estimated battery range and expected arrival time. Once the user locates its preferred Spin vehicle, the person will then be redirected to the Spin app to pay for the vehicle, unlock it and take the ride.
Spin’s two-wheeler vehicles will appear on Google Maps when users select the bicycle option after looking up directions to a specific location. They will also be displayed under the public transportation tab.
Micromobility, of late, has been gaining momentum to become a popular transportation solution for people living in urban areas. With the latest integration, Spin is making it much more convenient for millions of Google Maps users to easily include shared bikes and scooters into their daily trips, thus driving the shift toward micromobility solutions. Moreover, the integration will make it as low friction as possible for consumers to plan multi-modal journeys, while bringing greater awareness about Spin’s vehicle availability, thereby encouraging people to opt for this sustainable option for short journeys.
The collaboration with Google marks Spin’s biggest platform integration, till date, with many more in the pipeline. In fact, Spin is already integrated on other global and regional journey planning platforms like Citymapper and Moovit.
Spin is not the only micromobility company to collaborate with Google. In 2019, Google Maps integrated with Lime, the other big name in the micromobility space. Google has also worked with ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft to incorporate those transportation options in its app too.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Spin was founded as a pedal bike share in 2017. Spin is reimagining cities and communities by offering accessible, affordable and sustainable forms of personal mobility. However, compared to major micromobility companies, Spin has been late in integrating e-mobility bikes in its fleet.
Nonetheless, few months ago, Spin announced a new strategic plan to capture a niche in the bike market with an electric twist, and defeat its rivals and become profitable. Per the plan, it is deploying e-bikes for the first time, expanding to numerous cities in the United States and Europe, and executing revamped technologies in its quest to outshine its peers — Lime and Bird.
Amid the rising pressure among micromobility operators to turn a profit, Spin is on the lookout for exclusive and lucrative partnerships. The collaboration with Google is Spin’s latest effort to match up its competitors. It has also revealed plans to roll out up to 5,000 e-bikes on the streets this year.
Besides, with the intensifying competition among shared scooter and bike companies to produce the best, longest-lasting, and most technically-advanced electric vehicles, the launch of S-100T is Spin’s latest initiative to electrify its fleet and enhance foothold in the two-wheeler market.
Meanwhile, there are rumors that Ford might be divesting Spin into a separate entity via a sale or spin-off of the subsidiary.
Ford, peers of which include
General Motors
GM
and
Volkswagen
VWAGY
, currently carries a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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