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GM and Toyota come with car sharing initiative.
Toyota and GM are ready to enter the car sharing business because it is expected in the future that people will no longer want to purchase their own cars.
Instead, experts predict that they will rely more on car sharing as it will be a more comfortable solution designed to reduce traffic and save a lot of time for busy users. Also, car companies aim to make this method quite affordable so that everyone can benefit from it.
General Motors has already started to expand its car-sharing service called Maven which currently runs in seven United States cities. The company wants to implement this service in Los Angeles, a large city where traffic is certainly an issue.
Also, Toyota is developing its car sharing project known as Getaround. This program is supported by Mirai Creation Investment Limited Partnership which is the venture fund of the company.
Apart from GM and Toyota, the statistics have shown that car sharing has become widely-popular across the United States, so an increasing number of carmakers decided to develop their own projects.
Maven is currently leasing GMC, Cadillac, and Chevrolet cars for $6 or $8/ hour, including unlimited data (4G), fuel, and insurance. Another marketing strategy lies in the fact that GM uses Maven as a bridge towards potential customers.
Users lease the latest models with a few bucks, and they get to test them for an hour. If they feel the vehicle has met their requirements, some of them will purchase the car for themselves. The current Maven fleet consists of Chevrolet Volt, Tahoe, Malibu and Cruze, GMC Yukon and Acadia as well as several Cadillac vehicles.
Maven has already over 11,000 loyal members, who have driven over 23 million miles after more than 12,000 reservation this year. It is worth mentioning that apart from Los Angeles, users can find Maven vehicles in Washington, D.C., Michigan, Ann Arbor, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Boston as well.
Toyota’s Getaround has an impressive number of 200,000 members, and it is currently available in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Oregon, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco. According to Getaround statistics, car owners can save up to $10,000 every year if they use Toyota’s car sharing service.
Image Source: Jedlikanyosklaszter
