Brooklyn, New York, is the latest metro area in which members of the BMW ReachNow premium car-sharing service may reserve a BMW or Mini with their smart phone, pick it up, drive it around, and drop it off. Brooklyn becomes the third city to have BMW ReachNow, and the first one on the East Coast.
BMW announced the expansion of its premium car-sharing service at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, and at the same time revealed four pilot programs that will offer new mobility services related to ReachNow: Ride, Reserve, Share, and Fleet Solutions for residential buildings.
With Ride, which will premiere in Seattle on December 8, 2016, customers may request a driver in addition to scheduling individual and recurring rides. After the initial test phase, members will be able to specify temperature and music preferences and even a “do not disturb” environment.
ReachNow Fleet Solutions can keep BMW i3 and BMW 3 Series vehicles onsite at select apartment and condominium buildings or complexes for the exclusive use of residents there. Naturally, this will have to be set up between ReachNow and the property managers of the buildings. A pilot program will start on December 8, 2016 at The Solaire, a LEED Gold Certified building in Manhattan’s Battery Park City neighborhood in New York City. Managers of other properties can inquire about the program by e-mail at fleetsolutions@reachnow.com.
Share is a new ReachNow program in which owners of 2016 and 2017 Minis can rent their cars out when they’re not using them. The minimum rental period is two days. A Share pilot program will debut in Seattle on December 15, 2016. Mini owners may e-mail share@reachnow.com or contact Seattle Mini with questions or to determine their eligibility for the program.
For ReachNow members who wish to rent a BMW Group car for longer than a few hours, ReachNow will offer Reserve. Customers may use their smartphones to reserve a car for two to five days and may also request delivery of the cars to their locations. Multi-day rentals will be price capped automatically. This program will start in Seattle early in 2017. Members can request to join the pilot program by e-mailing reserve@reachnow.com.
“When we first launched the ReachNow service in April, we discussed plans for several mobility services that would make our more than 32,000 members’ lives easier and more convenient,” said Steve Banfield, ReachNow CEO. “Today, just under eight months and more than 1,200,000 member miles later, we are delivering on those plans and continuing to build upon the successes of ReachNow by offering Ride, Share, Reserve, and Fleet Solutions within one ReachNow app, a first for the industry.” He continued, “With three of these new services rolling out in our home headquarters city of Seattle and one in our newest ReachNow location in Brooklyn, we expect ReachNow will continue to grow rapidly as a welcomed addition to one of the biggest and most diverse cities in the world.”
The ReachNow app is available on the App Store and on Google Play. The new ReachNow services will be combined into a single app for testers only. After the initial test phase, ReachNow will expand the pilot program to current members in their local market areas.
ReachNow members in Brooklyn can pick up the closest available BMW 3 Series Sedans or Mini Clubman cars in their Home Area and return it to any legal parking space in the Home Area. The Brooklyn Home Area runs north to Greenpoint and Williamsburg, south to Sunset Park, and east to include portions of Borough Park, Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Bushwick. ReachNow will initially position 250 cars in Brooklyn.
BMW has announced plans to expand ReachNow service to ten North American metropolitan areas. With the addition of Brooklyn to Seattle and Portland, there are seven to go. We can guess which cities they may be, but with only a total of ten, some fairly big towns might not make the cut.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
