Maven, the mobility brand operated by General Motors, is ceasing operations in several major U.S. markets.
The brand will stop service in New York, Chicago and multiple other markets as part of a "shift in strategy," a spokeswoman said Monday.
Maven car-sharing will remain in Detroit and Los Angeles but details were unavailable on how the company plans to address services in other markets.
In some markets, the brand will keep car-sharing services available for consumers while shuttering Maven Gig, which provides short-term leases for vehicles used in ride-hailing or delivery services. The opposite will be true in other markets, according to the spokeswoman. In some markets, both branches of the business will cease operations.
Maven car-sharing is available in 12 cities, while Maven Gig is available in 10. It wasn't immediately clear whether operations will cease immediately.
The restructuring is the first major change for Maven since Julia Steyn, former head of Maven and GM Urban Mobility, left the company in January.
The moves are a result of the company wanting to "concentrate on markets in which we have the strongest current demand and growth potential," the spokeswoman said.
Maven, launched in January 2016, was GM's first significant foray into the car-sharing and mobility space. It debuted in Ann Arbor, Mich. GM has broadly used the brand as a laboratory to gather information for its automated-vehicle and connected-car plans.
At its onset, GM saw Maven as a key part of its evolution from an automotive-centered company into one that spread its business across other mobility services.
"We see the emergence of car share and ride sharing, in general, as much of an opportunity for GM than it is a threat," said Dan Ammann, president of GM at the time. "The thing that really changes between a shared model and a car-owner model is that the car is used in a much more efficient way. Now, cars are idled 95, 96 percent of the time. Utilization in shared can go up quite dramatically, and that makes the economics good for the customer and the company."
Mike Wayland contributed to this report.
