GM Launches Carsharing Service “Maven” In San Francisco
GM has now launched its carsharing platform, known as “Maven,” in San Francisco, California. As a result, those interested in renting GM vehicles (including the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid/PHEV) in San Francisco can now do so for $8 an hour (or $14 for SUVs).
These GM/Maven vehicles can be found at 30 different sites spread throughout the city, with 60 vehicles in total available to begin with. These locations are focused around the Financial District, Mission District, SOMA, and Embarcadero.
As with most of Maven’s competitors — ZipCar, City CarShare, Enterprise CarShare, etc. — rented vehicles must be returned to the same spot that they are picked up from. In other words, the rental service isn’t as flexible as the one offered by Car2Go or some other players in the field. GM is reportedly considering such an option in the future, though.
Autoblog provides more: “The automaker — which has a substantial $500 million investment in Lyft — will continue to expand the service to other metropolitan areas as it dives deeper into alternatives to individual vehicle ownership. In addition to San Francisco, Maven is currently available in Ann Arbor, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York City.”
Continuing: “What Maven does have going for it that other car-share services are sometimes lacking is that after you sign up, the acceptance process is relatively quick. ‘Usually within a few hours,’ according to Jeff Shields, Maven’s west coast regional director. That said, it could take up to 48 hours.”
Also notable, is that once approved you can actually use your smartphone as your key rather than relying on an NFC card, as with ZipCar and some other services. That’s certainly a convenient approach, and to the credit of GM/Maven.
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