The carsharing firm DriveNow — a joint-venture between BMW Group and SIXT — has launched its popular service in the Belgian capital Brussels, according to an email sent to CleanTechnica and EVObsession.
The DriveNow fleet being deployed in Brussels will total 300 vehicles — and will consist of the BMW 1-Series, the BMW 2-Series Active Tourer, and the MINI Clubman or Hatch — to be delayed across a 55 km2 portion of the capital.
The launch means that DriveNow now operates in 10 different European cities — with Brussels joining the likes of London, Vienna, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Hamburg.
The press release notes that Brussels will be following “the usual DriveNow ‘free-floating’ car-sharing concept, whereby the cars can be rented and returned to any legal parking space in the business area.”
Pricing for the service will be €0.33 per minute while driving, and €0.19 per minute when the car is parked. Of course, this price is inclusive of fuel costs, insurance, and parking costs.
The press release provides some background: “Since Munich became the first DriveNow city in June 2011, the company has grown into the European carsharing market leader and now boasts over 500,000 customers in Germany — a share of almost 40% of the overall market and 60% of the free-floating segment. Including its members in other European cities, DriveNow now has far in excess of 600,000 customers.”
“We look back on our five-year success story with pride and great satisfaction. When we launched in 2011, we were just a small start-up team in a single-room office in Munich,” commented Managing Director Nico Gabriel. “Today, we employ well over 100 people at nine sites and have grown to become the leading German car-sharing company in terms of customer numbers.”
Co-Managing Director Sebastian Hofelich commented as well: “We have always focused on growing healthily and sensibly. The upshot of this strategy is that we have already been able to operate profitably in Germany for two years. Our model has proven its worth, and now the expansion continues. We are looking forward to getting started in Brussels, which will now become our tenth city.”