DriveNow

DriveNow
Private (GmbH & Co. KG)
Industry Car rental
Founded 2011 (2011)
Headquarters Munich, Germany
Number of locations
 See Cities
Services Carsharing Car Club
Parent BMW
Website Drive-Now.com


DriveNow is a carsharing service wholly owned by the automotive manufacturer BMW.[1] DriveNow service began in Munich, Germany in June 2011.[2] As of October 2017, DriveNow operated over 6,000 vehicles in nine European countries.[3] Apart from five cities in Germany - Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Düsseldorf, and Cologne - DriveNow is available in Vienna, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Brussels, Milan,[4] Helsinki[5] and Lisbon.[6] In October 2017, the company reached the milestone of 1,000,000 customers.[7] 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.[8]

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. €209 million.[9]

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.[10]

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.[11] In contrast to DriveNow, ReachNow's technology platform is provided by RideCell rather than Sixt.[12]

Cities

The following table details all cities where DriveNow operates:

CityCountryVehiclesTypeStart date End dateRef.
MunichGermany750Gasoline, Diesel, ElectricJune 2011 [13]
BerlinGermany1400Gasoline, Diesel, ElectricSeptember 2011 [14]
HamburgGermany600Gasoline, Diesel, ElectricOctober 2013 [15]
DüsseldorfGermany310Gasoline, Diesel, ElectricJanuary 2012 [16]
CologneGermany310Gasoline, Diesel, ElectricSeptember 2012 [17]
ViennaAustria700Gasoline, Diesel, ElectricOctober 2014 [18]
LondonUnited Kingdom310Gasoline, Diesel, ElectricDecember 2014 [19]
CopenhagenDenmark600Gasoline, ElectricSeptember 2015 [20]
StockholmSweden400Gasoline, Diesel, ElectricOctober 2015 31st October 2018[21][22]
Brussels Belgium 320 Gasoline, Electric July 2016 [23]
MilanItaly500Gasoline, ElectricOctober 2016 [24]
Helsinki Finland 150 Gasoline, Electric May 2017 [25]
Lisbon Portugal 210 Gasoline, Diesel, Electric September 2017 [26]

How DriveNow car sharing works

Several BMW ActiveE in service for DriveNow charging at Googleplex in Mountain View, California.

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.[25] The price includes fuel, parking, insurance, and the rental.[27] 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.[28] 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.[29]

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 [30] and Munich [31] . 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.[32] In Copenhagen, DriveNow launched a purely electric fleet of 400 vehicles in September 2015.[33]

Vehicles

DriveNow Car Sharing MINI Cooper
DriveNow Car Sharing Mini Cooper

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.[34] In the San Francisco Bay Area, DriveNow deployed a fleet of 70 BMW ActiveE electric cars by July 2015.[35]

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.[36]

References

  1. ↑ "DriveNow comes to Helsinki". CleanTechnica. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  2. ↑ "What San Francisco taught BMW Group about car-sharing". Fortune. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "DriveNow to Launch Carsharing Service in Lisbon". Autorentalnews. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "DriveNow and Total launch digital payment system in Hamburg". Total.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  5. ↑ "DriveNow comes to Helsinki". CleanTechnica. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  6. ↑ "DriveNow Carsharing to launch in Lisbon". Automotive Fleet. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  7. ↑ "DriveNow reaches one million customers milestone". Fleetnews. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  8. ↑ "DriveNow Carsharing with BMW and MINI". DriveNow. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  9. ↑ "Sixt to sell its DriveNow stake to BMW". Reuters. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  10. ↑ "DriveNow and car2go combine to offer extended ride-sharing services". Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  11. ↑ "About us". ReachNow. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  12. ↑ "BMW Restarts Car-Sharing in the U.S. With New Name and Tech". Fortune. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  13. ↑ "DriveNow Munich". DriveNow Website. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  14. ↑ "DriveNow Car Sharing in Berlin". DriveNow Website. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  15. ↑ "DriveNow Factsheet" (PDF). DriveNow Website. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  16. ↑ "DriveNow Dusseldorf". DriveNow Website. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  17. ↑ "DriveNow Factsheet". DriveNow Website. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  18. ↑ "DriveNow Launches in Vienna, Austria with Discount". Sixt Car Hire Blog.
  19. ↑ "BMW and Sixt join forces with DriveNow scheme to make city driving cheaper". Auto Express.
  20. ↑ "400 BMW i3s Headed For DriveNow Car Sharing Service in Copenhagen". InsideEVs. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  21. ↑ "DriveNow Car Sharing in Stockholm". DriveNow (in German). Retrieved 2017-11-22.
  22. ↑ "DriveNow Stockholm Shutting Down Operations Oct 31st". www.drive-now.com. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  23. ↑ "DriveNow Car Sharing in Brussels". DriveNow (in German). Retrieved 2017-11-22.
  24. ↑ "DriveNow Car Sharing in Milan". DriveNow (in German). Retrieved 2017-11-22.
  25. 1 2 "DriveNow Car Sharing in Helsinki". Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  26. ↑ "DriveNow Carsharing to Launch in Lisbon". Automotive Fleet. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  27. ↑ "DriveNow UK How it works". DriveNow Website. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  28. ↑ "DriveNow UK Business Area". DriveNow Website. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  29. ↑ "DriveNow Car Sharing Affordable way to have a car in the city". DriveNow Website. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  30. ↑ DriveNow. "DriveNow Dusseldorf". DriveNow. Retrieved 2017-03-05.
  31. ↑ "DriveNow Launches in Munich". Retrieved 2017-03-05.
  32. ↑ "DriveNow in London". Retrieved 2017-03-05.
  33. ↑ "DriveNow in Copenhagen". Retrieved 2017-03-05.
  34. ↑ "DriveNow Vehicles". DriveNow. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  35. ↑ Jon Fingas (2013-08-22). "BMW DriveNow EV car sharing comes to San Francisco Bay Area, ParkNow follows suit". Engadged.com. Retrieved 2013-09-06.
  36. ↑ https://www.drive-now.com/de/de/blog/16-03-2017/fastlane
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