"Yes that’s right; you can now hire a car just to fulfil your basic need of travelling from one place to another without thinking about the hassle of parking, re-fueling, or even the insurance."

Everyone knows about the cycle hire across many cities worldwide the Barclays cycle hire in London is one such example. Suppose you have a similar option which includes driving a BMW 1 series or a Mini. Yes that’s right; you can now hire a car just to fulfil your basic need of travelling from one place to another without thinking about the hassle of owning a parking space, re-fuelling, or even the insurance. The only thing you have to do is drive now. DriveNow is a joint venture between the car sharing service provider Sixt and the automobile giant BMW. Initiated in Munich, Germany in June 2011, DriveNow currently operates over 2,400 vehicles which serve seven cities and over 330,000 customers worldwide.

The DriveNow business model thrives on the pay as you go service model. Post the one time registration fee, the company charges a base fee for the first 30 minutes of usage, followed by a per minute rate for every minute afterwards. DriveNow users rely on a smartphone app to locate, unlock and start the cars and then drive them away. The company also provides with discounts to customers for a parked car, multi-hour usage and daily usage. The rates are inclusive of gas, rental, insurance and parking in authorised areas and maintenance.

BMW is also planning to introduce its new electric car “The i3” in this scheme which would save on fuel and make the system even cheaper. BMW board manager, Peter Schwarzenbauer said that the company believes in the future and is happy to move along in the right direction. “We are bringing the technology and Sixt is bringing the car rental experience,” he said, adding that in cities that have embraced car sharing, a single such vehicle has the potential to replace dozens of cars. He also said that “the average age of our buyer is in the mid 40’s but the average age of the car sharing user is 32”. This also allows BMW to get access to the customers it normally has trouble reaching.

The challenge for the business is making it profitable. Car2go, a similar scheme, was tried by Daimler a few years ago in London and later in Birmingham. But the company later decided to withdraw its “free-floating” model having taken into account the “UK’s strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership”. However with the change in social and personal needs as well as the change in the people’s thinking, it can be a totally different story. But for now the only thing that can be assumed is that, city dwellers that drive to work may soon use vehicles very differently.