GM and Lyft partner to offer car leases for drivers

Everywhere you go now you see more and more Uber and Lyft drivers, so many so, that cab drivers are beginning to be few and far between.

In the first eight months of the year, in Los Angeles alone, almost 18,000 people have been turned down as Lyft drivers. Because they didn’t have a car or their car didn’t met the company’s requirements. This week, those wannabe Lyft drivers have another option. Through a partnership with General Motors called Express Drive, they can lease one on the cheap or even for free if they give enough rides.

Through Lyft's new Express Drive program, Lyft applicants now have the option of leasing a GM vehicle for $150 to $180 per week, including insurance—or for free, if they give at least 75 rides in a week. The weekly leases are $150 or $180 per week and include insurance, maintenance and mileage while driving for Lyft. Drivers have to pay for gas and 25 cents per mile for mileage accrued when they aren’t driving the car for Lyft.

General Motors isn’t the only auto maker to partner with a ride-hailing service. Earlier this year, Toyota partnered with Uber, which itself has a ride-hailing partnership with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Volkswagen also partnered with the ride-hailing service Gett. But Lyft's Express Drive service with GM marks the first time an auto maker is making its vehicles directly available to ride-hail drivers.

Drivers apply for Express Drive through the Lyft app. If they do not own an eligible vehicle, applicants are asked if they would like to rent a car through GM, which is currently offering two mid-size sedan options: the Malibu and Impala. The sedans were selected for their combination of interior room, trunk space (for airport pickups) and fuel economy. Within a few months, GM will also also offer its compact Cruze sedan, the plug-in hybrid electric Volt and all-electric Bolt subcompact.

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