LAS VEGAS — General Motors Financial Co. will be the commercial lender for General Motors Co.’s new fleet of autonomous Chevrolet Bolts, which will be introduced onto the streets of Manhattan in early 2018, Auto Finance News has learned.
The exclusive news came from the captive’s President and Chief Executive Dan Berce during a fireside chat at today’s 2017 Auto Finance Summit, in which he reiterated GMF’s commitment to the changing mobility landscape.
“There is no hype [around mobility] — it’s all real,” Berce said. “Disruption in the auto finance industry is inevitable; it doesn’t mean that consumer purchases of vehicles will go away forever and everyone will shift right to ridesharing, but especially in urban areas, we’re going to see more of a sharing economy.”
For GMF, that disruption means a shift to more fleet financing, he said. GMF is already the financier of the OEM’s luxury monthly subscription program Book by Cadillac, however, the number of borrowers utilizing the “test program” is in the hundreds rather than in the thousands, he added.
GMF will also be involved on the analytical and consumer-facing collections end of these autonomous mobility fleets. Collections for these fleets may differ in the future, he said, as rideshare moves to a per-mile collection system and subscription services charge a flat rate with no fixed term.
“We continue to nurture our core business, finance new vehicles, and provide a great customer experience, but at the same time we have to invest in the disruptive side of the business, which I think GM has done a really well and GMF is right behind,” Berce said. “We’ll be there on the front line.”
For more coverage from the 2017 Auto Finance Summit, click here.
