DriveNow has announced that it will discontinue its car share service in London from 1 March 2020.
In a statement, the company said that the decision was “not made lightly” and that despite “more and more Londoners integrat[ing] our service in their daily mobility behaviour we have had to face the hard reality that we could still not convince enough people to do so”.
The service – owned by parent company Share Now – began operating in the UK capital in December 2014, with the aim of offering a flexible car sharing mobility solution in combination with public transport as an alternative to private cars.
It currently offers a 720-strong fleet of BMW and Mini cars, including the plug-in hybrid-electric BMW i3.
“The number of customers in London and their demand for our car sharing service was below our expectations and lower than in other Share Now cities. Furthermore we had to face local factors, like high costs of operation and the different circumstances in the single boroughs,” the company stated on its website.
The London service is not the only DriveNow service facing closure, with operations in Florence and Brussels also due to cease later this year.
However, Share Now said it will remain operating in 18 other European cities that demonstrate a higher potential for profitable growth.
DriveNow, which began operating in 2011 in Germany, was wholly owned by BMW before the Share Now joint venture was formed with Daimler to bring synergy to car sharing for the brands.
