BMW and Sixt Launch Car Sharing Service

In response to Daimler's car2go car sharing service, BMW announced today the launch of a similar program, developed in partnership with rental company Sixt. To be launched next month, the program, called DriveNow, will be at first tested in Munich and Berlin.

As the launch of the vehicles from the new i brand are getting closer and closer to launch, BMW already stated that a car sharing service will be one of the means for the cars to get onto the market. For now, however, the cars to be used in DriveNow will be 300 BMW 1 Series and MINI vehicles (500 cars for Berlin).

DriveNow will work in essence as all other car sharing services work, the difference being that it is the first of its kind to use premium vehicles. Future users will have to register and find available cars and their location by either visiting the following link or directly at BMW, MINI and Sixt locations.

Unlike traditional car sharing services, DriveNow does not use fixed pick-up and drop-off locations. Reserving a car does not require advance reservation and using them can be done by activating the chip BMW and Sixt plan to attach to the users' driving license.

Only one registration fee of EUR29 (EUR19 + 90 minutes free of charge for the first 1,000 members) must be paid to be allowed into the program. After that, users will have to pay 29 cents (including sales tax) per minute for using the cars, with the price covering all costs, including parking fees and fuel (the maximum hourly charge for the MINI Cooper is for instance EUR14.90).

BMW plans to make the service one of its core assets in the future. As soon as the initial tests in the two German cities are over, the car maker will expand DriveNow all over the world, planning to have by 2020 no less than one million members.