To counter Uber and Zipcar, GM starts Maven

General Motors is taking another step in its push to become a big player in car sharing and ride hailing by introducing Maven to compete with the likes of Zipcar.

The automaker will start a service in Ann Arbor, Mich., that offers rentals of a Chevrolet Volt or Spark for $6 an hour and will expand car sharing in some residential communities in New York and Chicago in the first quarter.

Maven follows GM’s acquisition of the assets of Sidecar, a ride-hailing website that ceased operations in December, and the $500 million purchase of a stake in Lyft, an Uber rival.

The automaker is trying to catch up to companies such as Uber and Zipcar that have found a fast-growing business in on-demand transportation that could replace the need for some people to buy cars. GM is trying to protect against that threat and find a way to do business with consumers in places like New York City, where high costs and limited parking have made vehicles ownership a rarity.

“Our business is built around the concept of the owner-driver model,” GM president Dan Ammann said in a briefing. “We see changes in consumer behavior and we see significant opportunity as that change occurs. We want to make sure we’re at the forefront of this.”

Ammann said that as many as 6 million people globally are using some form of shared transportation. He said he believes that will grow fivefold by the end of the decade.

Maven’s car-sharing services, which provide rentals for periods as short as an hour, differ from the ride hailing offered by companies such as Uber or Lyft, in which consumers pay for a ride, just like hiring a taxi.

The $6 hourly fee that Maven charges is an introductory rate and the service has no membership fee. As GM tests its offerings in Ann Arbor, New York and Chicago, the company will get an idea of consumer usage and what rates make the business work, said Julia Steyn, the automaker’s vice president of urban mobility programs.

The automaker had already started a pilot program in New York at one residential building and is expanding that to other locations. The car-sharing programs in New York and Chicago will serve more than 5,000 residents, GM said. Maven charges $9 an hour in New York.

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 2:15 PM with the headline "To counter Uber and Zipcar, GM starts Maven."