On December 4, 2014, BMW launched a flexible car-sharing service called DriveNow in London. DriveNow is a joint venture between the BMW Group and Sixt SE. Locals and travelers may now motor through parts of the United Kingdom’s capital city by simply picking up a BMW Group vehicle on the street and dropping it off wherever they like.
Well, it’s not quite that simple, but almost.
To start with, 210 BMW 1 Series and Mini Countryman cars will be available for spontaneous hire. Next spring, DriveNow expects to add 30 all-electric BMW i3 cars to the London fleet. Over the rest of 2015, the total number of DriveNow cars will expand to 300 vehicles.
Initially, the area served will consist of about 25 square miles that include the boroughs of Islington, Haringey, and Hackney. DriveNow will seek to extend coverage to neighboring boroughs.
Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG and responsible for Mobility Services, said, “DriveNow is already an international success, with more than 360,000 regular customers in Europe and America and we are delighted now to launch it in London, Europe’s largest city. DriveNow gives Londoners instant access to highly desirable cars, perfect for the city, in an innovative and entirely flexible way. This program is part of BMW Group’s strategic response to the growth in urban living and shared ownership. Our aim is to expand it into about fifteen more cities in Europe and about ten in North America in the future.”
We should explain that when Mr. Schwarzenbauer said DriveNow currently had customers in Europe and America, he meant Europe and San Francisco, which is the only U.S. city that has the program at this time.
So what will it cost to rent a DriveNow BMW or Mini in London?
Each minute of driving in London costs about 60 cents. The hourly rate is capped at just over $30 at the current exchange rate. Each minute in the reserved park mode costs 30 cents. DriveNow saver packages will be available in London as they are now in Germany, which allow customers to save on the cost of minutes and hours. Hourly packages vary from $53 for three hours, including 40 free miles, to $187 for 24 hours, including 125 free miles. All costs for fuel, taxes, insurance, and parking charges are included in London. There is a standard one-time registration fee of $45.
DriveNow is currently available in five cities in Germany—Munich, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Hamburg—as well as Vienna, Austria, and San Francisco, California.
So far there is no word on the ten North American cities in which BMW is planning to offer DriveNow.—Scott Blazey
