New partnership will allow users worldwide to conveniently search for, reserve and pay for parking, with access to millions of garage on-street parking spaces.
The BMW Group is expanding the footprint of its innovative BMW i mobility services with an investment in the parking service provider Parkmobile. With around 10 million customers in more than 600 international cities, Parkmobile is the world’s leading provider of on-demand mobile payment solutions for public on-street parking. This partnership will expand the possibilities for PARK NOW, which can be used with any make of vehicle, whose focus is on offering its customers a user-friendly way of searching for and reserving city parking spaces, complete with cashless payment options. Users will in the future be able to use the PARK NOW website, smartphone app and navigation to access more than 3 million garage and on-street parking spaces across hundreds of cities.
This latest move means that PARK NOW is now the first network to offer its customers user-friendly parking solutions for both garage and on-street parking on such a broad scale. “With this new investment we are taking the next step on the way to making PARK NOW the world’s leading premium parking service,” says Joachim Hauser, Vice President Business Development BMW Mobility Services. “Using the dashboard for parking payments is the next step in giving drivers a smarter and better parking experience. Navigation and parking information combined gives us the possibility to lead drivers directly to an available parking spot.” adds Marius Koerselman, General Manager Parkmobile Group. Following the recent activities in North America PARK NOW and Parkmobile plan to start operations in European markets later this year.
Parking space bookable by app, computer or navigation, safe cashless payment.
PARK NOW from BMW i, which can be used with any make of vehicle, spares drivers the often time-consuming task – particularly in large cities – of searching and paying for a – vacant – parking space. This in turn helps to reduce fuel consumption and mitigates congestion and Co2 emissions. Customers who plan to park their vehicle in a parking garage near their destination can book a parking space before they set off, either by computer or by smartphone. The website or app shows the search results for all participating garages, filtered by availability, distance and price.
As an alternative, in the near future it will also be possible to book parking en route using the navigation system. PARK NOW already allows users to load the location details of their selected car park straight into the navigation system, while an electronic ticket grants them access to their reserved space when they arrive at their destination.
PARK NOW is a convenient and customer-friendly solution for on-street parking as well. The driver no longer needs to look for change to feed a ticket machine or parking meter but instead can simply enter the number of the selected parking zone in the app or navigation system to start the parking session – even before getting out of the car. Payment takes place automatically via PARK NOW.
BMW Group invests in Parkmobile as a strong partner
The investment in Parkmobile will allow the BMW Group to further expand the footprint of its “one-stop” PARK NOW service, an on-demand, flexible solution that allows users to search for and reserve garage or on-street parking, with subsequent cashless payments. For example, customers visiting event venues, restaurants, universities or airlines can be offered an appropriately tailored premium PARK NOW service for booking parking. The parking search is carried out online, avoiding the need for time-wasting street searches, and payment is automatic and cashless.