Maven, General Motors’s personal mobility brand, is partnering with the USA’s leading ridesharing service, Uber Technologies, to trial a new weekly vehicle leasing scheme.
Maven and Uber are teaming up to provide people who want to drive and earn money on the Uber platform the option to lease qualified General Motors (GM) vehicles by the week or longer at discounted rates with no mileage limits. The 90-day pilot will launch in San Francisco, California, as part of Uber’s Vehicle Solutions program, which provides driver-partners flexible options to access vehicles they can drive on the Uber platform.
As part of the pilot, people who have signed up to drive with Uber will be able to find a qualifying GM vehicle at a conveniently located pickup location in San Francisco. Vehicles offered in the pilot will include the Chevrolet Cruze, Malibu and Trax. Insurance coverage is included in the cost of every lease for a weekly price of US$179 plus taxes and fees. There are no additional fees if a driver uses the vehicle for personal use. The comprehensive Chevrolet dealer network will provide support for vehicle servicing needs.
GM launched its Maven car-sharing service in January, with the aim of giving its customers access to highly personalized, on-demand mobility services through a fully connected fleet of GM vehicles, featuring the newest cars with the latest technology and simple and transparent pricing. The new pilot scheme is considered to be a surprising move for Maven, after its parent GM invested US$500m in Lyft, Uber’s main competitor in North America, in January. GM then announced a similar vehicle leasing program in March called Express Drive, which is used mainly by Lyft drivers. However, GM has made it clear that it is exploring various alternatives to individual vehicle ownership as part of its future-focused personal and business mobility programs.
“Today we announced an additional step for Maven to engage with professional partners across the car-sharing and ridesharing industry,” said Julia Steyn, GM vice president of Urban Mobility. “Only 10 months after launching Maven, we have implemented viable business-to-business platforms that GM can leverage to manage residual values for ex-lease and fleet vehicles.”
Rachel Holt, Uber’s regional general manager for the USA and Canada, commented, “This is the latest in our efforts to provide driver partners with greater flexibility and more options to access vehicles in a way that works for them. This partnership with Maven combines our vast ridesharing network with GM’s extensive fleet vehicles, and gives people without access to a car, the ability to easily make money driving on the Uber platform.”
