DriveNow, the carsharing joint venture between the BMW Group and Sixt SE, is launching its flexible carsharing service in London.
Initially, 210 BMW 1 Series and MINI Countryman models will be available for spontaneous hire. DriveNow intends to add 30 all-electric BMW i3 cars to the London fleet in spring 2015, expanding it to a total of 300 vehicles during the course of next year.
The scheme will start off by serving an area around 65 square kilometres (25 sq. miles) in size comprising the boroughs of Islington, Haringey and Hackney, though DriveNow is seeking to extend the area of coverage to neighbouring boroughs before long.
Every journey is charged to the exact minute, with each minute of driving in London costing 39 pence. The hourly rate is capped at £20, so that customers save £3.40 per 60-minute hire. Each minute in the reserved park mode costs 19 pence. As in Germany, DriveNow additionally offers saver packages, which allow customers to buy blocks of minutes for as little as 32 pence per minute, as well as blocks of hours. Prices for the hourly packages vary from £35 for three hours, including 40 free miles, to £120 for 24 hours, including 125 free miles. All costs such as fuel, taxes, insurance and parking charges are already included in London as well. The standard one-off registration fee for London will be £29.
DriveNow is currently available in five cities in Germany – Munich, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Hamburg – as well as in the Austrian capital Vienna and in San Francisco, USA. It gives over 360,000 customers access to a fleet of some 3,000 premium BMW and MINI cars in any of these cities.
