General Motors opens car-sharing program in Seaport

Automakers are reinventing themselves as "mobility" companies that can accommodate all the different ways people get around. Already this year, General Motors Co. has announced a long-term alliance with ride-hailing company Lyft and started car-sharing service Maven. AP Photo/Paul Sancya

By Kelly O'Brien

July 6, 2016

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Boston residents now have access to another car-sharing service, this one centered in the Seaport.

On Tuesday, July 5, General Motors launched its Maven program in Boston, which will make 40 GM vehicles available to rent by the hour. The cars will live in seven different parking lots around the Seaport neighborhood.

Anyone can rent out the cars by downloading a smartphone app. Rates start at $8 per hour for compact cars and go as high as $24 per hour for larger luxury vehicles, according to The Boston Globe.

GM says it hopes the program will help residents avoid the parking-related stress that comes with car ownership and eventually reduce traffic congestion overall.

“We’ll use the launch as kind of a guide,’’ Maven’s general manager in Boston, John Crooks, told the Globe. “We’ll let our users tell us where to go. We’ll see where people are coming from, where they’re using cars the most.’’

GM has previously launched Maven programs in New York and Washington, D.C.

In Boston, GM joins a local car-sharing scene dominated by Zipcar, a company that has over 1,000 cars in the city. Zipcar membership requires an annual or monthly fee, as does Enterprise CarShare, another competitor with a Boston presence.