GM Expands Its Maven Car-Sharing Service to Chicago
General Motors has expanded its car-sharing service Maven to Chicago and will add Boston and Washington D.C. to its lineup this summer as it ramps up the five-month-old business.
Maven, which launched in January, is more like three car-sharing services in one, breaking down to a city-based service called Maven City that rents GM vehicles by the hour through an app, another for urban apartment dwellers, and a peer-to-peer sharing service that started in Germany.
“We’re super excited to get to a big stage now,” Julia Steyn, GM’s head of urban mobility told Fortune. “This is what we’ve been working towards. Maven being in Chicago, Boston, and DC opens up the user experience in a much more relevant way.”
Users can download the Maven app to search for and reserve a vehicle, unlock the door, and remotely start, cool, or heat the car. Every GM vehicle is equipped with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a software platform that lets users to integrate their smartphone and with a vehicle’s dashboard. The cars in the Maven service also have GM’s in-car communication system OnStar, SiriusXM radio, and 4G LTE wireless.
The automaker, which has announced several initiatives this year that highlight its interest in unconventional transportation, waded tentatively into the city-based service, initially launching with only 21 vehicles in Ann Arbor, Mich. The program, while open to everyone in the city, targeted faculty and students at the University of Michigan. Meanwhile, the residential on-demand car sharing dubbed Maven+ was only available to apartment dwellers living in Stonehenge Partners properties in New York.
Maven City is now operational in Chicago with pricing starting at $8 an hour, including insurance and fuel. Registered customers use the Maven app to reserve one of 30 vehicles at more than 15 sites throughout the city. Maven is also expanding its residential program to Chicago to residents of the Aqua luxury high-rise apartment community in the city’s Lakeshore East neighborhood.
Maven has partnered with Zirx, a mobility services platform startup, to provide an on-demand delivery option in Chicago that will let users order a car. If the delivery option proves successful in Chicago, which Steyn anticipates, it will be expanded to other cities, she said.
Next month, Maven+ will be available to residents of the Hepburn, a 195-unit luxury apartment community in Washington D.C.’s historic Kalorama neighborhood. Maven City will open to all qualifying D.C. residents by the end of June. Boston will follow later this summer, GM says.
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