A number of luxury automakers have launched subscription services in the United States and it appears General Motors could be readying a more mainstream version of Book by Cadillac.
In a trademark filing first noticed by GM Authority, General Motors submitted an application for the DriveScription moniker. If the name wasn’t revealing enough, the filing says it would be used on goods and services such as “automotive subscription services, motor vehicle rental services, motor vehicle sharing services [and], namely, providing temporary use of motor vehicles.”
There’s no guarantee that General Motors is actually planning to launch a service called DriveScription, but the company has been ambitiously expanding its efforts to reach consumers who don’t want to purchase or lease a new vehicle. The company was among on the first automakers to launch a subscription service in the United States when it introduced Book by Cadillac in New York City last year.
For a flat monthly fee of $1,500 (£1,161 / £1,289), the month-to-month service allows users to subscribe to a handful of different vehicles including the ATS-V, CTS-V, CT6, XT5 and Escalade. Like other subscription services, the vehicle’s registration, taxes, insurance and maintenance costs are covered by the fee.
More recently, GM’s Maven launched a peer-to-peer car-sharing beta which is being billed as a rival to Turo. It enables owners of late model GM vehicles to list their cars for rent on the Maven app and then receive 60% of the earning from each rental. The service was launched in three cities earlier this year and a larger roll out is scheduled for this fall.
We’ve reached out to GM for comment on the DriveScription application and will update this post when / if we hear back.
