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Harold Habousha

DriveNow Brussels. The BMW and Mini waiting for you to be driven

Have you seen the BMW and Mini DriveNow parked on the streets of Brussels? Those cars are available to be driven by the public. This is awesome.

What is DriveNow? It is a company founded by a partnership between BMW and Sixt, a rent-a-car company. The concept, already available in different cities of Europe, including Brussels since a few months, gives the possibility to rent a BMW or Mini per minute. Very simply, the cars are available in a wide zone of Brussels. You rent the car closest to you (find it with the DriveNow app), you drive within or outside the zone, and you return it by parking it within the zone.

What is the interest of DriveNow for the people of Brussels and its visitors? By using DriveNow a few times, I concluded that it is a great complement to the public transport and potentially a substitute for the expensive taxi of Brussels. For the people traveling in group of 2 to 5 and that do not have a public transport subscription, renting a DriveNow car will be much cheaper and more comfortable than taking a bus, tram or metro.

So how do you register to DriveNow and how much it cost? First of all, you need to register to the service. You will be required to provide a few documents via the App by taking a picture of your ID, driver’s license and credit card. This means, you will not need to bother using an old scanner to submit your document. Well done DriveNow. Regarding the cost, until recently it was free to register. Today it cost 29€ or 4,99€ if you find a launching ad of Facebook or Google for example. When using a car, it will cost you 0,33€/minute which is 4,95€ for a 15 minutes drive.

How does it actually work to rent a car with DriveNow? Once registered, it is really easy to rent a car. First, you will need to start the DriveNow app on your phone to locate a BMW or Mini. Once in front of the car, open the car with the app or by placing your customer card on the card reader located on the bottom right corner of the windshield. Inside the car, pay attention to the screen and follow the instruction. You will have to type in your pin code that you would have chosen when registering. Initiate the location on the screen, start the engine and drive. To end the renting, get out of the car, close the car with the App or by placing your customer card on the card reader again. A few seconds after closing the car, you will receive a mail from DriveNow with the minute amount driven and how much it cost you.

Drivenow zone in Brussels

In conclusion, I think DriveNow is a really nice service with very few constrains. The registration is simple and quick. Using a car is really easy and a pleasure as the BMW and Mini are brand new and well equipped. In addition, contrarily to Zencar or Cambio in Brussels, you do not have to park the car where you took it.

Therefore, the only downside is that you will feel tempted to use the service more often than expected to drive a brand new BMW or Mini, and it will quickly cost you more than the public transport.