General Motors President Dan Ammann keynotes the Economic Club of Chicago's meeting during the recent Chicago Auto Show.
Maven the internal start-up company that General Motors created last year to help it navigate the changes that are re-shaping the automobile industry is already showing substantial promise in its first year of operation, GM President Dan Ammann told the Economic Club of Chicago.
Ammann noted that Chicago was one of the first cities where Maven, GM’s new personal mobility brand, was launched and it has already connected to hundreds of customers in the Chicago, which is one of GM’s key market in the U.S.
Each month Maven is growing by double-digits in Chicago, where it has more than 1,400 subscribers for its car-sharing fleet. In addition, Maven has lined up 1,700 Lyft drivers for its Express service, which allows Lyft drivers to lease a new vehicle from GM to use as they pick up and drop off customers using its ride-sharing business.
Maven also has lined up a contract with one major residential tower with more than 800 units, Ammann said. Maven has made a small fleet available to the building’s occupants for their personal use, he noted.
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In 11 months, Maven has launched three products and has grown to 17 cities in the U.S. and Canada: Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Denver; Detroit; Los Angeles; Jersey City, New Jersey; Nashville, Tennessee; New York City; Orlando, Florida; Phoenix; San Diego; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
In addition, Maven this week expanded the services it offers in Atlanta. It now offers Maven City car sharing as well as the Lyft Express Drive program in Atlanta.
More than 20,000 members have joined Maven and have traveled 57 million miles to connect to the people, places and experiences that matter most to them.
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GM's Dan Ammann speaks to the Economic Club of Chicago during the Chicago Auto Show.
While the automobile business is likely to change more in the next five years than it has in the previous 50, Ammann also stressed that GM expects its basic vehicle manufacturing business to remain strong.
GM’s truck business, which is largely anchored outside of urban areas, remains very strong and accounts for the biggest share of the company’s profits.
“That’s not going to change,” he said, even as the company moves ahead into new ventures such as Maven and building electric vehicles that could serves as the backbone of fleets of autonomous cars geared to ferrying passengers in urban areas such as Chicago and San Francisco.
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“It’s going to happen sooner than you think,” noted Ammann, adding GM’s ability to combine its traditional industrial strength with new business models and new technology will be the source of immense strength in the future.