Lyft Offers Credits to People to Sell Their Cars

Lyft Inc. is testing a program that will provide ride-hailing credits for people who sell their vehicles through online used-car retailer Carvana.com.

The so-called Ditch Your Car program, which is being rolled out in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, will give participants $250 in Lyft credit and three months of free membership in Lyft's new Pink subscription service. Similar incentives will be offered in other cities in coming months.

Select Lyft members in the test cities will be sent an invitation to participate in the program. Those who submit information about their vehicle will receive a preliminary offer within two minutes, which will be followed by an on-site review.

Launched last week, Pink costs $20 a month for which members get a 15% discount on all Lyft ride-hailing trips and 90 minutes of complimentary bike-share and electric scooter rides in cities with availability. The service replaces Lyft’s previous All-Access plan that cost $299 per month for 30 free rides.

Nearly half of Lyft riders surveyed last year said they used their vehicles less because of the ride-hailing service. One in five agreed that owning a car had become less important to them.

In an earlier version of Ditch Your Car, Lyft offered customers $550 worth of financial incentives not to drive their own vehicles for a month. The package included credits for shared Lyft rides, bus and train passes, bike-sharing and Zipcar hourly rentals.

The programs are designed to encourage people to use various forms of transportation and reduce private vehicle ownership. Lyft also is testing a mobility-as-a-service app that allows users to compare the cost and travel times of different transportation services.