BMW launches new car-sharing service ReachNow in Seattle

BMW has launched a new car-sharing service called ReachNow that will allow Seattle residents to access 400 cars that they could pick up and drop off  within city limits. The idea was to eventually expand into cities nationwide.

The company's concept was hardly revolutionary, Daimler had a similar service called Car2Go that was available in New York, Austin, Minneapolis, Vancouver and Portland, Oregon. Audi had also launched a car-sharing service in San Francisco and Miami a few months ago called Audi at Home (the service was, however, currently limited to residents of one luxury condominium complex in each city).

BMW itself had been operating car-sharing services in 10 European cities, where Daimler too had been making a big push. Not only were these services better for cities, but it looked like they could produce more revenue for the car companies than selling cars, too.

What was perhaps most interesting about the new ReachNow initiative was the manner in which BMW was getting it up and running: through a partnership with RideCell, a San Francisco-based company whose software served as a kind of high-tech traffic controller.

Drivers would be able to get behind the wheel of one of the fleet's 370 vehicles - made up of BMW 3 Series, Mini Cooper or the electric i3 cars - and drop it off in any parking spot within most of Seattle.

With the service, BMW takes on Car2Go, the car-sharing programme using tiny, two-door Smart cars that had boomed in Seattle since it launched over three years ago.

ReachNow would expand to three more cities within the year, and planned to eventually operate in 10 North American cities. According to Peter Schwarzenbauer, company board member, the service was the initial piece of a larger mobility programme for BMW.