Avis Budget Group has teamed up with Ford in a connectivity partnership that aims to digitally connect more than 35,000 Ford vehicles in the rental company’s U.S. fleet by next summer.

In the partnership announced Wednesday, Ford Commercial Solutions will provide its Ford Data services embedded telematics solutions to Avis for connecting the vehicles. It is expected that over 10,000 Ford units in Avis fleet will be connected by year’s end, with the rest coming online by next summer.

“With more than 100,000 connected vehicles in our Avis Budget Group fleet and growing, the relationship with Ford Commercial Solutions is a significant milestone in our commitment to achieve a fully connected fleet by 2020,” said Avis Budget chief innovation officer Arthur Orduna in a news release.

“It allows us to expand our connected ecosystem and work with an organization that shares our mutual goal to push the boundaries of connectivity and innovation as we charge into a new era for mobility,” he said.

With the connected vehicles, Avis customers will be able to utilize the Avis mobile app to manage the entire rental process. From the fleet management side, Avis fleet managers will have real-time access to telemetry data, like odometer readings, fuel level and updates on the car’s condition.

“Ford Data Services and the TMC make it possible to deliver real-time connectivity across a fleet, enabling new data collection and insights. These insights make daily operations more efficient for our partners and their customers,” Ford Commercial Solutions chief executive Lee Jelenic said in a news release.

 “We are thrilled to work with Avis Budget Group, whose commitment to a fully connected fleet matches ours as we deliver 100 percent new-vehicle connectivity in North America by the end of 2019,” he said.

In similar tech news from Avis, it was announced last week that the company would be working with a group of 12 TV stations in Phoenix early next year to test the mobile video capabilities of the new television broadcast standard.

The Phoenix Model Market project is being managed by the Pearl TV broadcast group. The test cases involving Avis Budget vehicles in Phoenix will include basic over-the-air programming (across device types and in-car configurations) and over-the-air application and interactive services.

“We’ve identified several potential use cases for television-delivered signals in a passenger car, from basic reception of over-the-air audio and video signals to a range of interactive capabilities, since the new broadcast TV standard can easily accommodate reception in a moving vehicle,” Pearl TV managing director Anne Schelle said in a news release. “Planning is underway now to launch the first in-car tests in early 2019.”

Added Orduna of Avis Budget, “We’re on a mission to completely reinvent the customer experience through mobile apps, digital platforms and connected cars.

“Whether it’s broadcast entertainment, interactive information about the vehicle itself or location-based content and offers, Avis Budget Group looks forward to working with Phoenix Model Market stations to determine what passenger configurations could best accommodate a new in-car offering,” he said.