Wednesday, 22 February 2017

All-Electric Chevrolet Bolt Joins General Motors’ Car-Sharing Fleet

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Chevy Bolt Maven GM

Thirteen months after its inception, Maven, the car-sharing brand launched by General Motors, has added a vehicle to its lineup that could soon become the centerpiece of its operations: the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle. It recently joined the brand’s Los Angeles fleet, a deployment designed to accelerate Maven’s business in one of the country’s most green-friendly markets. It’s unclear how many Bolts will be available immediately, but GM plans to add more than 100 eventually in the greater Los Angeles region.

In a city where car culture still holds sway, Maven’s car-sharing service has been embraced quickly by many residents. Since launching in October 2016, the Maven City program in Los Angeles has seen average membership growth of 56 percent each month. In addition to customer demand, the Bolts complement the city government’s stated desires to promote electric vehicles and new mobility choices.

Since the city began implementing its “pLAn” in April 2015, officials say they’ve installed more than 1000 publicly available electric-vehicle charging stations. General Motors says it is working with infrastructure providers to help continue to build the charging network. For a limited time, Maven members will have access to free charging in the EVgo Freedom Station network throughout California.

Chevy Bolt GM Maven

The plug-in Chevy Volt has already been part of Maven’s fleet of more than 60 cars in the Los Angeles area. With the Bolt, which offers an EPA-estimated range of 238 miles, prospective Maven members gain more assurance the car won’t run out of power while they navigate the city’s notoriously traffic-choked roads. That’s key because the average Maven user keeps the car more than 12 hours, and the average distance driven is 121 miles, according to a GM spokesperson.

Maven provides vehicles for Lyft’s Express Drive program, which gives the ride-hailing service’s drivers access to weekly rentals of GM vehicles in select cities, including Los Angeles. Once the Bolts are fully deployed in the city, GM says they could provide up to 250,000 all-electric driving miles per month.

General Motors made a high-profile investment of $500 million in Lyft in January 2016, and that investment is a central part of the company’s plan to roll out Chevy Bolts used for ride-hailing purposes. Eventually, those plans include autonomous Chevy Bolts. The company also sees Maven as a central component of its broader efforts to appeal to urban residents searching for more seamless ways to move about their cities.

“Starting in Los Angeles, Maven will focus on collaborating with cities and municipalities to co-create smart transportation solutions that enhance mobility, create jobs and ease parking and congestion,” said Julia Steyn, vice president of General Motors Urban Mobility and Maven.

Beyond Los Angeles, Maven officials are already planning stages to bring the Bolts to San Diego and San Francisco. Maven operates in 17 cities in the United States and Canada and intends continued expansion to more markets.

Pete Bigelow is the transportation, technology, and mobility editor at Car and Driver. He can be reached via email at pbigelow@hearst.com and followed on Twitter @PeterCBigelow.

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