BMW Group has formed a strategic partnership with Hamburg to expand the city’s existing fleet of electric DriveNow vehicles.
DriveNow is a car-sharing joint venture between BMW Group and SIXT SE. The expansion will see the number of electric vehicles increase to 550 by 2019. 400 pure electric and 150 plug-in hybrids are planned to hit the road.
As well as this, Hamburg intends to provide 1,150 charging points in stages by 2019. It is set to be the first German city to offer a significant number of parking spaces for car-sharing and electric vehicles.
“With Hamburg as our strong partner, we want to continue expanding our highly-attractive options for sustainable individual mobility in the city and help improve environmental conditions in urban areas,” said Peter Schwarzenbauer, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for MINI, Rolls-Royce, BMW Motorrad, customer engagement and digital business Innovation BMW Group. “DriveNow is already a genuine success story – in Hamburg and in other cities. I firmly believe this is an important step to win over even more users for electrified car-sharing.
“Hamburg is preparing for future mobility with state-of-the-art technologies. We want to make traffic cleaner, quieter and more efficient, thereby improving quality of life in the city. To achieve this, we are developing intelligent traffic systems and promoting electro-mobility all across the city – for example, by expanding charging infrastructure. This expansion programme will create the conditions needed to operate one of the largest electrified car-sharing fleets. This cooperation with the BMW Group will play a major role in systematically expanding e-car-sharing services.”
