After a three-year run, BMW's DriveNow car-sharing service will suspend its San Francisco operations in November—due to a dearth of parking spaces!
Using BMW Active-E plug-in vehicles, BMW started the DriveNow service in San Francisco in August 2012. The program provided a viable additional use for first-generation BMW electric vehicles after their first tour of duty with lease customers. The Active E’s were later replaced by BMW i3 electric vehicles.
DriveNow members could pick up an electric BMW in certain San Francisco neighborhoods or at DriveNow stations in the Bay Area, keep the car for as long as they wanted, paying $12 for the first 30 minutes and $0.32 for each additional minute, recharge for free at DriveNow stations, and terminate the rental by parking at a DriveNow station. Registration was done online starting with a one-time fee of $39. There were no annual or monthly fees.
Even though San Francisco added 80 parking spaces for the program in 2014, DriveNow executives believed that although demand was sufficient, parking still wasn’t.
"We hope to return to San Francisco in the future and will continue to engage with the City on possible solutions that will allow you to experience the full benefits of our one-way car sharing service," explained DriveNow CEO Richard Sternberg. He continued on the company’s web site, "In the meantime, we are focusing our efforts on new cities where our transportation solution can flourish. We would like to thank you for your loyal support and embracing flexible car sharing as an alternative transportation method."
DriveNow has 500,000 customers in cities worldwide, including Copenhagen, Vienna, London, Stockholm, and the German cities of Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, and Munich, plus—up until now—San Francisco. The service uses 3,800 BMW and Mini vehicles, including the 400 new BMW i3s that just opened DriveNow in Copenhagen.
Driving in congested cities has always been a challenge for private automobile owners, but one they were willing to accept as long as there was eventually a parking space for them at their destination. It appears the same is true for short-duration one-way rentals as well.—Scott Blazey
[Photo courtesy of Autoblog.]
