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Private company

DriveNow

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

One-way carsharing service in Europe

DriveNow was a one-way carsharing service wholly owned by the automotive manufacturer BMW. In 2019, DriveNow and car2go, a carsharing service from Daimler AG, merged to form the global mobility provider Share Now, with a combined fleet of 20,000 vehicles in 31 cities in 14 countries and over four million members worldwide. Share Now is one of the five mobility services which are part of the mobility joint venture of the BMW Group and the Daimler AG.2 It is headquartered in Munich.1 It ceased to exist in 2020.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Jun 9, 2011Founded1

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DriveNow was a one-way carsharing service wholly owned by the automotive manufacturer BMW.2

Corporate structure

DriveNow is part of a group headed by BMW. 86 entities, 29 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • BMW München, Germany
    • Alphabet Fuhrparkmanagement München, Germany
    • BMW Bank GmbH München, Germany
      • BMW FINANCE Subsidiary · Montigny-Le-Bretonneux, France
    • BMW Czech Republic Praha 5, Czechia
    • DriveNow Munich
    • Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Westhampnett, United Kingdom
    • BMW Brilliance Subsidiary · 75% · Shenyang
    • Alpina Subsidiary · Buchloe
    • BMW Hellas Subsidiary · Kifisia, Greece
    • BMW India Subsidiary · Gurgaon
    • BMW M Subsidiary · Munich
    • BMW Motorrad Subsidiary · Berlin
    • BMW South Africa Subsidiary · Johannesburg, South Africa
    • BMW US Manufacturing Company Subsidiary · Greer
    • DesignworksUSA Subsidiary · Thousand Oaks
    • Here Technologies Subsidiary · Singapore
    • John Cooper Works Subsidiary · Farnborough
    • Spotlight Automotive Stake · 5% · Zhangjiagang
    • ALPHABET BELGIUM LONG TERM RENTAL Subsidiary · Aartselaar, Belgium
    • B M W AUSTRALIA LTD. Subsidiary · Mulgrave, Australia
    • bao ma (zhong guo) fu wu you xian gong si (宝马（中国）服务有限公司) Subsidiary · Beijing, China
    • bao ma (zhong guo) qi che mao yi you xian gong si (宝马（中国）汽车贸易有限公司) Subsidiary · Beijing, China
    • BAVARIA REINSURANCE MALTA LIMITED Subsidiary · Floriana, Malta
    • BAVARIAN SKY S.A. Subsidiary · Luxembourg, Luxembourg
    • BAVARIAN SKY UK HOLDINGS LIMITED Subsidiary · London, United Kingdom
    • BAVARIAN SKY UK-A LIMITED Subsidiary · London, United Kingdom
    • and 61 more

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

Products and brands

Operation

Cities

The following table details all cities where DriveNow operated:

One-way car sharing model

In contrast to classic car rental, where a vehicle is rented at a designated location and typically returned after one or more days, one-way carsharing models allows the use of freely parked vehicles in the city area, or business area. Vehicles can be found and rented through an app on the phone. Driving charge is by a minute rate that ranges between €0.24 to €0.57 per minute depending on the vehicle and business area. The price includes fuel, parking, and insurance. DriveNow also offers packages to make the per minute rate cheaper. Vehicles can be parked back anywhere in the business area of the city. Typically, the car must be parked in the same city as it was rented. The exception is in Düsseldorf and Cologne.

App

An app for mobile devices allow users to locate and reserve vehicles. When reserving a car online, the customers are able to see the car's fuel gauge (gasoline-powered cars) or the battery's state of charge (electric-powered cars), so if the customer wants to go for an extended drive, they can find the right car for that trip. Cars can also be opened and closed through the app.

Vehicles

DriveNow operates a variety of gasoline-powered and diesel BMW 1 Series, BMW 2 Series, BMW X2 series, BMW X1, Mini Countryman, Mini Clubman, Mini Convertible and Mini Cooper vehicles as well the electric-powered BMW i3 and BMW ActiveE. In the San Francisco Bay Area, DriveNow deployed a fleet of 70 BMW ActiveE electric cars by July 2015.

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Electric driving

DriveNow Electric Driving with BMW i3

DriveNow once claimed to offer the largest electric car sharing fleet in the world, using BMW i3, BMW i3 Rex, and BMW Active E. Since 15 July 2015, a total of 724 full-electric BMW i3s have been in regular operation in the fleets of Berlin (130 vehicles), Hamburg, Cologne / Düsseldorf and Munich. The BMW ActiveE in Berlin and Munich were thus replaced. In London, DriveNow offered the BMW i3 from May 2015 till closure and could thus benefit from tax relief. In Copenhagen, DriveNow launched a purely electric fleet of 400 vehicles in September 2015.

From Wikipedia’s article on DriveNow, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

  1. Succeeded by Share Now1

Timeline

  1. 2020Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. Jun 9, 2011Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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