Car rental service Sixt has exited from the DriveNow car-sharing brand after selling its stake to manufacturer BMW.
DriveNow, first established as a joint venture between the pair in 2011, is now solely owned by BMW via a reported $248 million sale of the remaining shares owned by Sixt.
BMW Group says the pair will remain strategic partners following the sale, with the rental brand continuing to receive BMW and Mini vehicles to bolster its fleet.
DriveNow is available as a car-share in 13 European cities, including London, Vienna, Munich, Berlin and Milan, with one million customers having used the service so far. U.S. counterpart ReachNow, which was not part of the Sixt JV, was launched in 2016
and operates in New York, Seattle, Washington and other cities.
Peter Schwarzenbauer, who oversees customer engagement and digital business innovation at the BMW Group, says the aim is to have 100 million customers for its premium mobility services by 2025.
He adds: "With DriveNow as a wholly-owned subsidiary, we have all options for continued strategic development of our services in our hands. Our experience with mobility services supports our development of future autonomous, electrified and connected
fleets."
The service works by letting travelers locate an available vehicle in a city on the DriveNow mobile app. They can then open the car by using a code on the app, drive away, and return the vehicle to a designated spot in the city.