General Motors' (GM) Maven mobility service company has announced an expansion of the US areas it covers, adding Denver in Colorado and Los Angeles and San Francisco in California to the cities it already operates in. This brings to 13 the total number of US cities that Maven operates car-sharing services in. The pricing of Maven's services in these cities starts at USD8 per hour, with no monthly membership or application fees. In Denver, residents can use the Maven app to reserve the Chevrolet Volt, Tahoe, Cruze, or Malibu; the GMC Yukon or Acadia; or the Cadillac ATS, CT6, CTS, or Escalade. In Los Angeles, the Maven City service provides an affordable option for residents who want to live a car-free or 'car-lite' city life, says GM. Consumers in LA or San Francisco can choose from the same vehicle options as in Denver, although the Cadillac XT5 is also added to the Californian vehicle list. In San Francisco, Maven has 60 cars in 30 locations, and the company says that an on-demand lifestyle is part of the city's fabric.
Significance: Maven says that more than 13,000 members have joined the service. The company says that those members have booked more than 14,000 trips and travelled more than 28 million miles. An average trip is 100 miles and the average period of use more than 12 hours, with the most popular vehicles the Chevrolet Malibu, Spark, and Volt. Automakers worldwide are working on pilot programmes to develop car-sharing services and to update their business models. GM's Maven is one of the fastest-moving mobility ventures, showing significant growth in only 10 months.
