BMW introduced a brand-new car-sharing service in Seattle called ReachNow that utilizes a fleet of BMW 3 Series sedans, i3s, and Mini Coopers. It is slightly similar to Daimler’s Car2Go– which is offered in Austin, New York City, and a handful of other North American towns and utilizes a fleet of Smart automobiles– in that the service is priced by the minute and automobiles can be taken one way as long as they’re left within a specified “home area”.
The service isn’t really particularly low-cost by the hour, but if you just need an automobile for a fast jaunt, the per-minute prices helps. All cars in the ReachNow fleet have a “promotional” rate of 41 cents per minute while driving (generally 49 cents) and 30 cents per minute while its parked. On longer journeys, rates is topped at $50 for 3 hours, $80 for 12 hours, and $110 for 24 Hr.
Though the service is introducing first in Seattle with a fleet of 370 cars, it’ll eventually be brought to 10 United States cities. This isn’t really BMW’s very first shot at car sharing: it has actually run several programs in European markets, and briefly launched a pilot variation of ReachNow merely called BMW Car Sharing in San Francisco; that trial closed down last year. Vehicle sharing is seen as a boon for many automakers as urban occupants move far from automobile ownership; Ford and General Motors have both recently released services, and more are gotten out of others in the coming years. Zipcar, the Avis-owned stalwart of the automobile sharing industry, recently launched one-way and per-minute service in Boston and L.A. with more cities to come.
