BMW Group’s free-floating premium car sharing service, ReachNow, announced its latest city expansion into Brooklyn, N.Y. and debuted four new mobility services: Ride, Reserve, Share, and Fleet Solutions for residential buildings. Brooklyn becomes ReachNow’s third North American city and marks the company’s first expansion beyond the West Coast.
ReachNow builds on its premium experience by offering members greater versatility through an array of convenient and easy-to-use transportation solutions, available in a single app for the first time.
ReachNow has created an unprecedented mobility services ecosystem by including transportation options to meet every individual lifestyle and need. The four mobility services that will launch as pilots in select cities over the next month include:
• Ride: ReachNow members seeking an on-demand ride service can order a driver as well as schedule individual and recurring rides in a ReachNow BMW vehicle. ReachNow’s Ride on-demand service will launch as a pilot program in Seattle on Dec. 8, 2016. As the initial test phase continues, ReachNow will expand the Ride service with additional features, including the ability to personalize the vehicle, with temperature and music preferences as well as a “do not disturb” for members who wish to have a more restful experience, and a loyalty program to earn ride credits for use across all ReachNow services. The ReachNow Ride scheduling feature will be widely available to members in early 2017.
• Fleet Solutions: ReachNow Fleet Solutions will offer residential members an unparalleled level of convenience with exclusive use of BMW i3 electric vehicles and BMW 3 Series that remain onsite at select apartment and condominium buildings or complexes. ReachNow Fleet Solutions for residential buildings will begin at The Solaire, a LEED® Gold Certified building, in Manhattan’s Battery Park City neighborhood on Dec. 8, 2016. Residents of The Solaire can inquire with building management.
• Share: MINI owners of 2016 or 2017 model year vehicles are invited to join the ReachNow Share pilot program in Seattle. Share enables MINI owners to rent their vehicles via ReachNow when they don’t need access to it, helping to offset the cost of car ownership. Vehicles can be rented for a minimum of two days. ReachNow Share service will begin in Seattle on Dec. 15, 2016.
• Reserve: Beginning in October, ReachNow members who wanted to use the vehicles for longer trips of 2 to 5 days could select a vehicle via the ReachNow app and see multi-day price caps automatically applied. To make longer usage even more convenient, ReachNow Reserve will enable members to schedule a vehicle to be delivered at their preferred time and location. This expanded ReachNow Reserve service will begin in Seattle in early 2017.
“When we first launched the ReachNow service in April, we discussed plans for several mobility services that would make our more than 32,000 members’ lives easier and more convenient. Today, just under eight months and more than 1.2 million member miles later, we are delivering on those plans and continuing to build upon the successes of ReachNow by offering Ride, Share, Reserve, and Fleet Solutions within one ReachNow app, a first for the industry,” said Steve Banfield, ReachNow CEO. “With three of these new services rolling out in our home headquarters city of Seattle and one in our newest ReachNow location in Brooklyn, we expect ReachNow will continue to grow rapidly as a welcomed addition to one of the biggest and most diverse cities in the world.”
ReachNow selected Brooklyn as its first East Coast market because of its vibrant culture and residents’ progressive and environmentally-conscious values. ReachNow will serve as an extension to New York City’s subways and buses, offering additional flexibility to meet residents’ every need.
ReachNow is designed to provide drivers with an experience that is as convenient as owning a car. The user experience is premium and affordable, with fast mobile registration and an almost instant approval process – often in two minutes or less – a first for any car sharing service. The initial fleet of 250 vehicles in Brooklyn includes the BMW 3 Series and the MINI Clubman. There are also nearly 800 vehicles in Seattle and Portland combined, including the electric BMW i3, BMW 3 Series, MINI Cooper and MINI Clubman, with plans for fleet expansion. Membership gives drivers access to any available vehicle in any fleet in any city.