Ford Motor Co. announced a 40% growth in its connected vehicle fleet under its Ford Pro commercial business unit since 2023, which now totals 5.2 million vehicles, the automaker announced in a blog post March 4.
The company now seeks to utilize that momentum to draw more business from fleet customers seeking additional tools to improve efficiency, boost driver safety and maximize vehicle uptime.
Ford Pro’s fleet management solutions for example, can be used to collect data from Ford vehicles to help fleet managers more efficiently monitor utilization and maintenance needs, regardless of the model.
The Ford Pro software offers a comprehensive, real-time view of vehicle components, sensors, dashcams videos, including battery health monitoring and the locations of nearby electric vehicle chargers for EV fleets.
“The demand for data about commercial vehicles is rapidly growing,” said Dave Prusinski, Ford Pro vehicle revenue officer, in the release. “Acknowledging that our fleet customers operate a variety of powertrains, makes and models, we are committed to ensuring our software solutions are compatible across all types.”
The plans for Ford Pro were announced in May 2021 and the unit officially launched in Spring 2022. Ford Pro was established to target the growing commercial and electric fleet segments, including in Europe. Its commercial offerings include vehicle sales, financing and servicing, telematics and data services, connected software and EV charging management.
The Ford Pro ecosystem also offers business customers vehicle internet connectivity and access to cloud services. Ford began adding embedded modems as standard on all Ford commercial vehicles starting in 2020 to access telematics data remotely.
In 2021, Ford launched “Ford Pro Charging” to provide support and operational insights for business customers managing fleets that include a growing number of electric trucks and vans. Ford Pro Charging services include real-time battery range monitoring and EV charger location assistance.
Ford Pro Intelligence was added in 2022, which included features such as expanded telematics, including stolen vehicle recovery, driver behavior Insights and an expanded fleet monitoring dashboard for fleets using a mix of electric, hybrid and internal combustion engine vehicles.
“Fleets today are more intelligent than ever,” Prusinski said in the release. “We’re pushing the envelope of connectivity and building capabilities at the vehicle's code level that seamlessly integrates with our software solutions.”
To further support the adoption of electric trucks and vans for fleets, Ford Pro launched its more advanced E-Telematics software in 2023 as a subscription-based model. It provides more detailed analytics on vehicle performance, battery usage, predictive maintenance and enhanced integration with EV charging Infrastructure, including for Ford Pro’s charging depots and home chargers.
Additional Ford Pro updates last year include live video telematics using dashcams, as well as “E-Switch Assist,” a free tool that monitors connected vehicle data to evaluate how adding electric vans and trucks to fleets can work best for individual businesses.
Ford Pro entered into a 10-year agreement with the city of Dallas in May 2024 to grow and manage electric vehicle charging infrastructure for the city’s fleet vehicles.
Ford said it will offer a top speed limiter function for fleet operators later this year, allowing customers to remotely set a maximum speed limit on fleet vehicles to avoid speeding tickets. The feature will be available on model year 2022 and newer F-150 Lightning models and 2023 and newer Super Duty trucks.
Ford is also working on cybersecurity measures to protect connected vehicle data, which is a primary concern across the industry. Ford Pro recently earned ISO 27001 certification, a global standard for managing information security to ensure that all customer and vehicle data is kept highly secure.
