ReachNow was a

carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...

service operated by BMW Group in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Portland, and

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. It launched in 2016 and it shut down its services in Seattle and Portland on July 17, 2019. It used a

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

for car reservations and operated a fleet of over 1,000 vehicles. It was one of three car-sharing services in the city of Seattle, competing with car2go and Zipcar. ReachNow was similar to another BMW Group service DriveNow, but was focused on North American cities starting with Seattle. Unlike DriveNow which is a joint-venture with Sixt, ReachNow is a fully owned BMW subsidiary, with RideCell rather than Sixt, providing the technology platform.

History

It launched in April 2016 with 370 vehicles. In May 2016, Steve Banfield was named Chief Executive Officer and the company declared that they had reached 13,000 registered members; Car2Go, the main competitor to ReachNow in Seattle, stated they had 77,000 members at the time. In December, ReachNow announced that it would add 180 cars to its fleet in Seattle, bringing the total to 700, and lowered its minimum age requirement to 18 years old. The company is also expanding its operations to include four new Mobility Services: Reserve, Share, Fleet Solutions and a

ridesharing company A ridesharing company (or ridehailing service) is a company (or service offered by a company) that, via websites and mobile apps, matches passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire that, unlike taxis, cannot legally be hailed from the street. ...

, ReachNow Ride, to compete with

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

and

Lyft Lyft, Inc. is an American company offering ride-hailing services, motorized scooters, and bicycle-sharing systems in the United States and Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dynamic pricing model based on local supply and demand a ...

. In March 2018, BMW and Daimler announced that their carsharing services, ReachNow and Car2go, would merge into a combined entity that would be jointly operated. BMW cancelled ReachNow Ride in May 2019 and on July 17, 2019, announced that it would cancel all of its services in Seattle and Portland effective immediately.

Service area

ReachNow initially launched in April 2016 serving a limited area of the city of Seattle, but expanded several times to eventually encompass the entire city by December. ReachNow also expanded to serve the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport in August 2016. ReachNow expanded to

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, on September 19, 2016, and parts of

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in November. Service in Brooklyn was suspended due to maintenance issues.

Fleet

ReachNow maintained a fleet of 700 vehicles in Seattle, 360 in Portland and 260 in Brooklyn. Models included the BMW 328xi and BMW 330xi sedan, the electric i3, the Mini Cooper (in both 2-door and 4-door configurations), and the Mini Clubman. In December 2016, ReachNow added the

BMW X1 The BMW X1 is a line of cars produced by German marque BMW since 2009. It is in the subcompact luxury crossover SUV, subcompact luxury crossover class, and the first-generation X1 was based on the BMW 3 Series (E90), E90 3 Series and offered rea ...

to its fleet.

References

External links

* {{Vehicle rental brands BMW Carsharing Defunct companies based in Seattle Transport companies established in 2016 Transport companies disestablished in 2019 American companies established in 2016 2016 establishments in Washington (state) 2016 in Seattle