General Motors on Wednesday announced an online used-car sales platform called CarBravo. Scheduled to launch this spring, GM says it will offer a transparent and streamlined buying experience.
CarBravo will pull from dealership inventories and a “national central stock” of used vehicles that will include non-GM models, according to a company press release. All vehicles will be “inspected and reconditioned to meet standards set by GM,” according to the automaker, and will get some form of warranty coverage. SiriusXM satellite radio and OnStar telematics trials will also be available in applicable vehicles.
Customers will be able to access 360-degree views and vehicle history reports through a dedicated website and receive price quotes from dealerships (and GM financing, where applicable), who will still handle the actual sales and servicing of cars sold through CarBravo.
CarBravo will also offer at-home test drives and home delivery in areas with participating dealerships. Customers will also be able to sell their own cars through the platform, receiving guaranteed online offers based on the auto-industry Black Blook, even if they don’t buy a car through CarBravo, GM said.
While most automakers operate so-called certified pre-owned (CPO) programs for used cars, this is the first major attempt by an automaker to sell used cars through a corporate channel. GM’s involvement of dealerships in sales and servicing is likely essential to avoid running afoul of state franchise laws, as Tesla has done with its direct-sales business model.
Supply-chain issues caused the supply of new cars to tighten in 2021, leading to skyrocketing used-car prices. That might explain why GM is taking this unusual step, and it’s worth noting that much of the groundwork for CarBravo was laid by the Shop Click Drive service GM began offering in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
GM has experimented with several other new businesses in recent years, most bundled into the now-defunct Maven mobility brand. Maven offered carsharing services in some cities, so-called peer-to-peer carsharing that allowed GM owners to rent out their cars to other people, as well as low-cost rentals to rideshare drivers, but was shut down in 2020 after several cutbacks. Will CarBravo be more successful?
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.