DriveNow is a carsharing service wholly owned by the automotive manufacturer BMW. DriveNow service began in Munich, Germany in June 2011. As of October 2017, DriveNow operated over 6,000 vehicles in nine European countries. Apart from five cities in Germany - Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Düsseldorf, and Cologne - DriveNow is available in Vienna, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Brussels, Milan, Helsinki and Lisbon. In October 2017, the company reached the milestone of 1,000,000 customers. DriveNow operates a fleet comprising only vehicles manufactured by subsidiaries of BMW Group including various MINI models (convertible, clubman, countryman) as well as BMW X1, i3, 1 series, and 2 series.
Created as a joint venture between BMW Group and the car rental company Sixt SE holding 50% of shares each, DriveNow became a wholly owned subsidiary of BMW in March 2018. On January 29, 2018, BMW announced that Sixt SE had agreed to sell its 50% stake for c. EUR209 million.
In April 2018, BMW Group and Daimler AG agreed to combine their mobility services, including their car sharing devices DriveNow and car2go, to shape sustainable urban mobility for the future.
A similar BMW service, ReachNow which is offered in North American cities, was established in April 2016 in Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon and Brooklyn, New York. In December 2017, ReachNow had over 50,000 members. In contrast to DriveNow, ReachNow's technology platform is provided by RideCell rather than Sixt.
Video DriveNow
Cities
The following table details all cities where DriveNow operates:
Maps DriveNow
How DriveNow car sharing works
In contrast to classic car rental, where a vehicle is rented at a designated location and typically returned after one or more days, the new car-sharing models allows the use of freely parked vehicles in the city area, or business area. Download the DriveNow app and you will be able see where all of the vehicles are in each city. Just find a car on the app and open the car with your phone or card. Once you start driving you will be charged a minute rate that ranges between 24 cents to 57 cents per minute depending on the vehicle and business area. The price includes fuel, parking, insurance, and the rental. DriveNow also offers packages to make the per minute rate cheaper. Once you are done with the vehicle you will be able to park the vehicle anywhere back in the business area of that city. Typically, the car must be parked in the same city as it was rented. The exception is in Düsseldorf and Cologne: you will be able to use the vehicle in both for a small fee.
Electric driving
DriveNow Electric Driving with BMW i3 DriveNow offers the largest electric car sharing fleet in the world, using BMW i3, BMW i3 Rex, and BMW Active E. Since July 15, 2015, a total of 724 full-electric BMW i3s have been in regular operation in the fleets of Berlin (130 vehicles), Hamburg, Cologne / Düsseldorf and Munich . The BMW ActiveE in Berlin and Munich were thus replaced. In London, DriveNow has also been offering BMW i3 since May 2015 and can thus benefit from tax relief. In Copenhagen, DriveNow launched a purely electric fleet of 400 vehicles in September 2015.
Vehicles
DriveNow operates a variety of gasoline-powered and diesel BMW 1 Series, BMW 2 Series, BMW X1, Mini Countryman, Mini Clubman, Mini Convertible and Mini Cooper vehicles as well the electric-powered BMW i3 and BMW ActiveE. In the San Francisco Bay Area, DriveNow deployed a fleet of 70 BMW ActiveE electric cars by July 2015.
Apps
First-party apps for mobile devices allow users to locate and reserve vehicles. When reserving a car online, the customers are able to see the car's fuel gauge (gasoline-powered cars) or the battery's state of charge (electric-powered cars), so if the customer wants to go for an extended drive, they can find the right car for that trip. On March 22, 2017, DriveNow has updated their app to include new features to make it even easier to rent a car. The new features include opening the car and closing the car with the app, entering your destination in the app and it will be transferred to the car GPS, it is called fastlane.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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