The car company BMW is looking for new business areas. With DriveNow, the Bavarians are already investing in the carsharing business, now they want to start a carpool service according to SPIEGEL-ONLINE information.
Administration building of BMW in Munich
Monday, 14.03.2016
09:09 clock
BMW wants to build in Europe a competitor to the driving service Uber. “We can imagine expanding our car sharing and developing towards ridesharing,” said BMW CEO Peter Schwarzenbauer to SPIEGEL ONLINE. Ridesharing refers to the transport of persons in a private car.
Ridesharing is one of the fastest growing offerings in the emerging market for shared mobility. Dominated in the US About the business, while in China the local company Didi Kuaidi has the market leadership. In Europe, an advance by Uber failed so far to the jurisprudence in some countries, France or Germany have banned the $ 51 billion start-up from the Sillicon Valley because the UberPop service violates the Passenger Transport Act. In Germany, the compound had taxed taxi.
That Uber could not gain a foothold in Europe so far, is also due to the “cowboy mentality of Silicon Valley,” said Schwarzenbauer, who is responsible for BMW, among others for Mini, Rolls-Royce, but also DriveNow and i Ventures one Venture capital company that invests in services. “Europe is culturally different.” In the United States, for example, Uber simply ignored existing laws, grew rapidly and is now indispensable in cities like San Francisco. The official permission for his mobility business, the company, in which the search engine operator Google is involved, received only later.
BMW could fall back on the DriveNow fleet
In Europe, such a procedure is bad, If BMW wants to successfully place its ride-sharing offer, this can only be achieved by consensus with all those involved, Schwarzenbauer believes. The experience from car sharing will help the company. In Germany, BMW operates together with the car rental Sixt DriveNow.
BMW CEO Peter Schwarzenbauer
Schwarzenbauer did not say exactly what a potential BMW ridesharing concept could look like. It is conceivable, however, that the planned Uber rival relies on the fleet of DriveNow, which is already represented in Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and Austria.
Students who were looking for a job could book a DriveNow and do ridesharing. Especially Friday or Saturday night, when taxis are in high demand in Germany, this could be lucrative for the drivers. DriveNow vehicles are especially free in the evening.
Uber wants to continue attacking in Europe
For the BMW Group, who joined with Daimler alternative mobility concepts The car industry has the edge, it must be all about as quickly as possible to occupy a leading position in Europe. “Uber will certainly do another second attempt in Europe,” said Schwarzenbauer. But once there is a top dog, it would be difficult to replace it.
That BMW is looking for a partner for its ride-sharing plans is likely – just to develop the software for the service and keep it up to date. In Germany, various partners would be available for this purpose, for example, the Hamburg start-up company WunderCar, which has already started its ride-sharing service in cities such as Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and Istanbul. In the past year was speculated about an entry of BMW at WunderCar, then it did not happen. For this Konstantin Sixt participated in the Hamburg company.