General Motors is making monthly rentals part of its Maven car-sharing program. Starting now in San Francisco and Los Angeles, members of the app-based mobility service can book a Chevrolet Volt extended-range hybrid or a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV for 28-day blocks of time. Soon, GM plans to roll out this long-term rental service, called Maven Reserve, in more markets.
The year-old mobility brand is more closely associated with hourly and daily rentals in the 17 cities in which it operates. Maven’s data showed that users in San Francisco and Los Angeles often need longer-term rentals for short-term stays in those areas associated with work.
“The service was developed initially for entertainment and entrepreneurial communities seeking frictionless, on-demand transportation options and longer-term access to vehicles,” a Maven spokesperson said. “It’s a huge opportunity for us and comes from listening to our customers.”
Users will pay $1100 per month for the Volt and $1500 per month for the Tahoe, and those prices come with a $100 gas card, insurance, and dedicated parking spots.
Those prices are on par with costs for rental cars in these two areas, but the legacy car-rental firms don’t include the same perks. For two examples, a cursory search for 28-day rentals from traditional car-rental companies shows Hertz charging $1483 for a Toyota 4Runner or similar SUV in Los Angeles and Dollar asking $1334 for a month in a Chevrolet Spark in San Francisco.
The advent of ride-sharing services and the blurring of lines between car sharing and traditional car rentals has taken a toll on companies like Hertz and Avis. The stock price of Hertz Global Holdings has plummeted more than 78 percent over the past three years. In the same period, the stock price of Avis Budget Group has fallen 29.5 percent. Maven’s push into a longer-term rental space will likely further squeeze traditional rental companies.
The announcement marks the latest expansion of Maven’s business. Last month, the brand added the new, all-electric Chevy Bolts to its lineup in certain cities, including Los Angeles, where executives say average membership has grown 56 percent in each of the months since its October 2016 launch in that location. Bolts are soon slated to arrive in the San Diego and an Francisco Maven fleets. But you can’t get a Bolt for a month—at least, not yet. New Yorkers, meanwhile, might be interested in the similar but unrelated “Book by Cadillac” service; it has nothing to do with Maven, but allows usage of a variety of Cadillacs for a flat $1500 a month.
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