BMW considering ride-sharing service
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/03/2016 (3470 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BMW is said to be exploring offering a ride-sharing service, something that would pit it against the mighty Uber.
The automaker’s plan doesn’t yet seem fully hatched, but it appears to be a defensive manoeuvre to counter the challenge from the ride-sharing app.
BMW board member Peter Schwarzenbauer told Germany’s Spiegel Online he could envisage expanding its DriveNow car-sharing operation — a joint venture with car-rental company Sixt, with about 580,000 registered users — to include a ride-sharing element.
How might that work? Schwarzenbauer didn’t say, but Spiegel Online speculated it might, for example, allow students to use a DriveNow vehicle when it wasn’t required and then offer lifts to paying customers.
Such a service should be cheap to get off the ground and would help get maximum value out of BMW’s existing car-sharing fleet, which operates in Germany, Austria, the U.K., Denmark and Sweden. Higher utilization is generally a good thing for car manufacturers because vehicles need to be replaced more frequently.
— Bloomberg News