BMW Group and Hamburg announce strategic partnership to provide electro-mobility options all across the city of Hamburg

Munich/Hamburg. The Free and Hanseatic City of
Hamburg and the BMW Group today signed a Memorandum of Understanding
to form a strategic partnership concerning urban mobility. It aims to
expand the Hamburg based fleet of electrified DriveNow vehicles to
around 550 by 2019. DriveNow is the car-sharing joint venture between
the BMW Group and SIXT SE. Plans call for around 400 pure electric
vehicles and about 150 plug-in hybrids. At the same time, Hamburg
intends to provide a total of 1,150 charging points in stages by 2019
and will become the first city in Germany 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,”
explained 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,” Schwarzenbauer continued.

 

“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.
Integrated e-car-sharing, combined with classic public transport
solutions, will ensure that future urban passenger transport offers
greater flexibility and capacity, even at peak times,” said Olaf
Scholz, First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

 

Step-by-step implementation will get underway in the summer of this
year to ensure that the availability of electrified vehicles and
charging points develop in tandem.

 

“By the end of this year, we will have 200 BMW i3s available in the
Hamburg fleet, almost three times as many as the 70 we currently
have,” said DriveNow Managing Director Sebastian Hofelich. “For us and
our partners, this initiative is important to learn how and under what
conditions rapid electrification is possible,” Hofelich continued.

 

Hamburg and the BMW Group aim for this strategic partnership to
leverage electro-mobility all across the city on the Elbe and lower
overall vehicle emissions. At the same time, additional car-sharing
options will ease inner-city traffic by optimising vehicle utilisation
and reducing the number of miles driven by individual passenger cars.

 

The BMW Group competence centre for urban mobility was founded at the
beginning of 2015. It aims to offer impulses and ideas, working
together with cities and local mobility providers to develop
sustainable concepts for urban mobility and sharing BMW Group
solutions for innovative and scalable alternative concepts with the
wider mobility sector. Hamburg offers an example of how cooperation
between local authorities and private companies can lead to the active
creation of innovative and sustainable mobility concepts.

 

If you have any questions, please contact:

Corporate Communications

 

Christina Hepe, Business and Finance Communications

Telephone: +49-89-382-38770

Christina.Hepe@bmw.de

 

Kai Zöbelein, Steering Governmental and External Affairs,
Sustainability Communications

Telephone: +49-89-382-21170

Kai.Zoebelein@bmw.de

 

Media website: www.press.bmwgroup.com

presse@bmw.de

 

 

 

The BMW Group

 

With its three brands BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, the BMW Group is the
world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles
and also provides premium financial and mobility services. As a global
company, the BMW Group operates 31 production and assembly facilities
in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

 

In 2016, the BMW Group sold approximately 2.367 million cars and
145,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax was approximately
€ 9.67 billion on revenues amounting to € 94.16 billion. As of 31
December 2016, the BMW Group had a workforce of 124,729 employees.

 

The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term
thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established
ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain,
comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to
conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy.

 

www.bmwgroup.com

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About DriveNow

 

DriveNow, the car sharing joint venture of the BMW Group and Sixt SE,
is available in various European cities and offers a range of
high-quality premium vehicles of the BMW and MINI brands to rent,
based on the free-floating principle. The vehicles can be hired and
returned independent of location within a defined business area. More
than 875,000 registered customers find and reserve vehicles using the
DriveNow App or website, and are able to use the service across
multiple cities. DriveNow operates a fleet of over 5,500 vehicles in
Munich, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, Vienna, London,
Copenhagen, Stockholm, Brussels and Milan. In all of these cities,
electric BMW i3 models are available. Several studies have proven that
one DriveNow vehicle replaces at least three private cars. DriveNow
therefore contributes to easing the traffic situation in cities.