Environment

GM’s Carsharing Service Expands. Is Your City Next?

Dec 16, 2016 2:20 PM ET
Campaign: GM Greener Vehicles

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General Motors’ Maven carsharing service debuted in January 2016 as an alternative mode of transportation for people living in the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. It has since grown to 15 more cities and 17,000 users that together have clocked in 40 million miles. Peter Kosak, GM’s executive director of urban mobility, said the company will announce even more locations in 2017.

Is your city next? Kosak says a number of factors go into selecting Maven markets, such as:

  • A high concentration of people who use their phones for banking
  • Good public transportation solving first-mile/last-mile challenges
  • Dense population with high walkability scores
  • Strong electric vehicle infrastructure

“We spend a lot of time analyzing psychographics and demographics of a given market,” said Kosak. “We’re not just looking for people to download the app; we’re looking for habitual users who are helping us reinvent mobility.”

Maven is an hourly, keyless carsharing service for people who don’t own a vehicle or need a different car for a few hours, such as making a weekend trip to IKEA.  

The service is already available in Ann Arbor, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Maven also recently rolled out one-way services in some markets, such as trips from downtown Detroit to the airport.

Users locate and reserve Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Volt, one of the most popular Maven cars. Fully customizable and featuring 4G LTE Wi-Fi, users can access their own music collection through Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

“We want to make sharing feel like ownership,” said Kosak.  “Maven is centered on highly personalized, intuitive and on-demand access to vehicles.”

The company also offers Maven Home, an exclusive carsharing program for qualified residents living in a partner residential building. With no additional fees, residents check out Maven vehicles in designated garage locations.  Maven Home is in Jersey City, New York and Washington, D.C.

The third Maven service is Express Drive, which provides short-term vehicle rentals for people who want to drive for Lyft, but don’t own a car. The more trips they complete with Lyft, the less they pay in rental fees. Later this year, Express Drive markets in California can select from the largest fleet of ridesharing EVs, including the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV or 2016 Chevrolet Volt.

Shared use is a natural extension of GM’s business model. It’s been more than 100 years of mobility via purchase and now it’s increasingly becoming mobility via service. What stays the same is providing people with reliable and convenient transportation.