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BMW is set to expand its recently-launched Munich car-sharing scheme to other cities including in the UK.
The German carmaker has teamed up with car rental company Sixt, putting 300 1 Series models on the roads in Munich for people to use for as little as 25p a minute.
People register for the scheme with BMW dealers and are given keyless access to the models which are parked at various points round the city. A mobile phone app locates the nearest car and once inside, the user punches in their pin number and away they go. A credit card is debited according to the amount of usage.
As long as the car is left within certain city limits there’s no further charge. Each BMW is tracked by satellite so the company knows where they all are and a team of refuellers keep the tanks topped-up.
Tony Douglas, a Munich-based Brit who runs sales and marketing for BMW’s mobility services said the scheme had been running successfully for the past month.
‘BMW provides the cars and Sixt provides the back-end technology in terms of logistics and the customer data bank. We already have 3,000 registered users and we now plan to take the scheme to Berlin,’ he said.
He added that as well as other German cities, BMW was talking to other cities around Europe and there was a strong chance that the scheme could be introduced in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other cities.
It is part of BMW’s plan to keep people connected to ease congestion. The carmaker has put aside £62 million to invest in mobility services.
Some of that investment went into New York-based My City Way which provides a number of services including the best way to get from A to B. It is plugged into traffic cameras to advise which route to take - or get the train.
This is coming to the UK with My London Way. Douglas added: ‘The scheme uses mobile phone apps to direct people to where they want to go as well as finding them points of interest, petrol stations or somewhere to park.’
The German carmaker has teamed up with car rental company Sixt, putting 300 1 Series models on the roads in Munich for people to use for as little as 25p a minute.
People register for the scheme with BMW dealers and are given keyless access to the models which are parked at various points round the city. A mobile phone app locates the nearest car and once inside, the user punches in their pin number and away they go. A credit card is debited according to the amount of usage.
As long as the car is left within certain city limits there’s no further charge. Each BMW is tracked by satellite so the company knows where they all are and a team of refuellers keep the tanks topped-up.
Tony Douglas, a Munich-based Brit who runs sales and marketing for BMW’s mobility services said the scheme had been running successfully for the past month.
‘BMW provides the cars and Sixt provides the back-end technology in terms of logistics and the customer data bank. We already have 3,000 registered users and we now plan to take the scheme to Berlin,’ he said.
He added that as well as other German cities, BMW was talking to other cities around Europe and there was a strong chance that the scheme could be introduced in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other cities.
It is part of BMW’s plan to keep people connected to ease congestion. The carmaker has put aside £62 million to invest in mobility services.
Some of that investment went into New York-based My City Way which provides a number of services including the best way to get from A to B. It is plugged into traffic cameras to advise which route to take - or get the train.
This is coming to the UK with My London Way. Douglas added: ‘The scheme uses mobile phone apps to direct people to where they want to go as well as finding them points of interest, petrol stations or somewhere to park.’