Seattle motorists can get a taste of luxury with BMW's new car-sharing service.
ReachNow—based on the company's European version, DriveNow—launched late last week with an initial fleet of 370 BMW i3 electric, BMW 328i, and Mini Cooper vehicles. BMW promises "fast registration and an almost instant approval process"; all you'll need is a driver's license, credit card, and a smartphone camera, presumably to verify identity. Access cars with your smartphone or a member card BMW will mail to you.
ReachNow requires a one-time $39 registration. Pricing then ranges from $50 for up to three hours of use to $80 for 12 hours and $110 for 24 hours. Once those time limits are reached, per-minute pricing kicks in: $0.49 for each minute the vehicle is in use and $0.30 per minute parked. Drive for three hours, for example, and pay $50. Drive for three hours and one minute, and pay $50.49.
Those who sign up now can get an introductory offer of $0.41 per extra minute and no registration fee.
Insurance, gas, electricity, parking costs, taxes, and other fees are included in that price. If you get the electric i3, "don't worry about charging," BMW says. "This is managed by our fleet team, so any BMW i3 available should have enough charge to cover all trips around the city during a day."
If you don't want to walk to a nearby garage to pick your car, ReachNow members can request that their vehicle be delivered. Plus, customers can spontaneously decide to keep their ReachNow vehicle for several days, without the hassle of swapping it for a different model. BMW also offers a pool of cars exclusively to companies or residential complexes—availability guaranteed—for corporate or private needs.
On the flip side, anyone can rent out their own car via ReachNow, assuming it meets BMW's specific technical prerequisites.
"Our customers rightly expect uncomplicated and fast solutions to their individual mobility needs, especially in metropolitan regions," Peter Schwarzenbauer, board member of BMW AG, said in a statement. "This is why we are supplementing our classic business model with additional services that make life on the road easier for people in big cities.
"Seattle is an innovative, internationally oriented city which makes it the perfect location to launch these services," Schwarzenbauer added.
ReachNow will expand into more U.S. cities over the coming months. And BMW promised more services for "bespoke individual mobility," including chauffeur service.