BMW’s ReachNow car-sharing service this week announced a new flat-rate pricing plan that aims to make trips more affordable for users.
Instead of being charged $0.41 each minute that the car is used and $0.30 for each minute parked, users in Portland, Seattle, and Brooklyn now have the option to pay a flat fee of $20 for trips up to one hour. BMW said this saves its users 17 percent from the per-minute rate.
BMW kept its $50 flat rate option for trips up to 3 hours in all three cities, but also this week introduced a $80 flat rate option for up to 24 hours for users in Seattle and Portland — a 27 percent discount.
Users in Brooklyn will still pay $110 for up to 24 hours. In Brooklyn, BMW also just rolled out multi-day flat rates — it already does this in Seattle and Portland — and is eliminating toll fees for a limited time.
The company’s pricing page says one goal of the change is to make short trips — like taking a ReachNow car to pick up groceries or run errands — more accessible. It also hopes to make longer trips, like going out of the city for a day, more affordable.
ReachNow launched in Seattle in April last year, competing with car-sharing services like Car2go, which just added new Mercedes Benz vehicles to its fleet. There are now 700 ReachNow vehicles in Seattle, up from 370 at launch. ReachNow later expanded to Portland and Brooklyn.
The company also launched a pilot program for a ride-hailing service last year, setting it up to compete directly with Uber and Lyft.
BMW said in November that there were 32,000 ReachNow members across Seattle and Portland.
