Pairing together two things fleets often buy — vehicles and a fuel purchasing program — Chevrolet launched an embedded, in-dash fuel payment and savings app. It's in conjunction with Shell and is powered by Marketplace, General Motors' e-commerce platform announced in December.
The Chevy/Shell fuel program adds an icon to the vehicle's media center, which essentially now looks and works like a smartphone or tablet's operating system. This new fuel app will be available for model year 2017 and newer Chevrolet vehicles.
Users store a form of payment in the Shell app. Once that's done, they can use the app to locate a participating Shell station and get an activation code to fuel up from a particular pump. They enter the code, pump their fuel, and the app pays for it, applying Shell's Fuel Rewards program savings.
While this Shell app launch for Marketplace is geared more toward consumers and offers convenience and a fuel discount, it's not hard to imagine GM Fleet adapting and expanding this type of service for fleet and commercial customers, perhaps adding deeper functionality like a back-office component or fuel allotments/tracking for drivers.
It also highlights the progress of automakers' efforts to bring commerce and additional services into the car—or cab, as the case may be—particularly as mobility-as-a-service and autonomous concepts advance.
The app is now being piloted in select markets, according to Chevy, and will be rolled out nationally "throughout the coming months."
Scroll through the slideshow to see how this Chevrolet-Shell app works.
