GM’s Maven car sharing will shut down in Baltimore

Maven, General Motors’ car-sharing brand that launched in Baltimore two years ago, will discontinue service in the city next month, the company announced Tuesday.

Maven is pulling its car-sharing business out of eight cities, according to news reports. The service offered users hourly and daily rentals of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles. Service in Baltimore will end June 21.

“This is part of a broader effort to concentrate Maven on future growth opportunities,” said Iman Jefferson, a Maven spokesman, in an email.

Maven Gig, car rentals for drivers of rideshare services such as Lyft and delivery services, will continue to be offered in Baltimore. But Maven’s new “peer-to-peer” program, in which car owners and lessees can rent out their late-model GM vehicles, also will be discontinued here.

The ride-sharing service allowed customers to use a mobile app to find, reserve and unlock cars “loaded with technology” at hourly or daily rates.

The company would not confirm which cities, besides Baltimore, it plans to leave. A report in the Wall Street Journal said Maven will end car-sharing in eight of its 17 North American cities, including major markets such as Boston and Chicago.

When Maven’s car sharing came to Baltimore in April 2017, the company said the service had grown in a little over a year to 17 cities and attracted more than 30,000 members.

Baltimore was selected because of “the number of people wanting to live and work in a revitalized downtown,” said Dan Grossman, Maven’s chief operating officer, at the time. “Owning a car in a densely populated urban city is not always practical, and Maven now provides options for Baltimoreans wanting to live car-free or car-lite.”