General Motors Co. will use record-high lease returns as extra supply for its rideshare leasing partnership with Lyft — called Express Drive — said Peter Kosak, executive director of urban mobility programs at GM.
“Where we’re growing our lease business, [mobility] is a growing opportunity for us because we have vehicles coming back off lease in increasing numbers,” he told Auto Finance News.
General Motors Financial Co. increased its leasing portfolio 27% year over year for the nine-month period ending Sept. 30, and Kosak expects volume to continue upward, in large part due to GM’s mobility services.
While new vehicles have been deployed for the company’s mobility program Maven, off-rental vehicles are already being leased to Lyft drivers so that GM doesn’t cannibalize its own new-vehicle sales.
“That program is very synergistic with our core business because we typically would take those vehicles off daily rental and sell them through auction, and that can tend to hurt new-car sales,” Kosak said. “The opportunity to take those and redeploy them as shared vehicles in an Express Drive offering or Maven, is a good opportunity for us because we continue to generate income out of the vehicles.”
