GM and Lyft expand Express Drive programme
General Motors and Lyft announced on Monday plans to expand their short-term rental programme to California and Colorado after “dramatically exceeding expectations” in the test cities of Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, and Baltimore. The expansion will include two electric vehicles as options in California, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV and the extended-range electric 2016 Chevrolet Volt. Neither firm has as yet clarified how many vehicles are currently involved in Express Drive, however GM President Dan Ammann has previously stated that the numbers are “meaningful and are going to be very meaningful".

Jon Swartz

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Lyft continued a flurry of news Monday with the extension of a program that could add hundreds of thousands of drivers to its ride-hailing service.

Lyft said it is expanding its short-term, car-rental service for drivers, Express Drive, to the San Francisco Bay Area, Denver and Los Angeles this year. It is currently available in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Lyft President John Zimmer and General Motors President Dan Ammann made the announcement in connection with Fortune's Brainstorm tech conference Monday in Aspen, Colo. In January, GM poured $500 million into Lyft to create an on-demand network of self-driving cars.

"This continues our innovation and leadership in treating drivers better than anyone," Zimmer told USA TODAY in a phone interview.

Express Drive Expands Footprint to California and Colorado

More than 130,000 people in the Bay Area, Denver and L.A. have applied to become Lyft drivers but did not have cars that qualified because they were too old or not up to snuff. Among the vehicles drivers can rent for free include the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV and the extended-range electric 2016 Chevrolet Volt, according to Ammann.

Expansion of Express Drive continues the recent growth of Lyft services nationwide. Last week, it launched Premier, a high-end car service, in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York and Los Angeles.

It's been a hectic few weeks for the San Francisco-based unicorn, which faces withering competition from Uber, a larger rival flush with venture funding and a stratospheric market value of $61 billion. Lyft, valued at $5.5 billion last year, may be one of several highly valued start-ups that look to mergers and acquisitions.

It hired Qatalyst Partners, a boutique investment bank that specializes in finding suitors for tech companies, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Lyft unveils Premier service to rival Uber Select

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