Business conditions precipitated by the COVID-19 crisis have proved the ideal distraction for General Motors to gently kick its Maven car-sharing initiative into touch.

Maven was one of those brave new mobility experiments that looked great in corporate presentations and was guaranteed to get Wall Street excited about automotive dinosaurs seeking new revenue streams and extracting more value from underutilized assets.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Data Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Related Company Profiles

View all

Disruptive business models were not meant to disrupt the companies applying these new strategies. But that’s exactly what they appear to have done. They are a distraction for the established automotive players, when they should have a laser-like focus on making their products as good as they can be. And it seems that when push comes to shove, they accept that too.

Maven had been launched in early 2016, but had never really taken off. In 2019, it had withdrawn its services from several cities in the US including Chicago, Boston and New York so the portents for Maven were not great before COVID-19 wreaked havoc through society and the economy.

Corporate largesse is out. Corporate redress is in.

Corporate largesse is out. Corporate redress is in. Or perhaps it’s a bit unfair to accuse GM of corporate largesse. It’s not been alone in this. Already we’ve seen BMW and Daimler’s car-sharing start-ups join forces and reinvent themselves as Share Now as the two try and engender a sustainable business from the concept.

Car companies have long cast envious glances at tech start-ups and their sky-high market capitalisations and sought ways to engineer Wall Street’s adulation. All along all they had to do was to engineer their vehicles to such a degree that consumers desired their vehicles above all others. After all, that’s pretty much what Tesla has achieved with its electric cars.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Maven will no doubt not be the last automotive frippery to make way as COVID-19 winds its way around the world. OEMs and suppliers will be busy MoSCoW*-ing their portfolios, cutting back to those products that are essential for driving revenue and profitability. It used to be that a proliferation of sports car and coupes was a signal that automakers had lost focus. Maybe for this generation it will be new mobility. Or to misquote Robin Williams, “Mobility is God’s way of telling you you’re making too much money.”

*Acronym for Must have; Should have; Could have; Wish

See also: GM Maven car sharing unit folds