The seriousness of global climate change cannot be overlooked, especially in a time where world population and urbanization is rapidly increasing. Climate change is happening rapidly and we must take actions to combat it. This is shown through the abnormal increase in frequency and intensity of natural disasters all around the globe. Human activities have caused global warming of our planet by about 0.9 degrees Celsius; however, if people do not make changes to their daily actions any time soon, it is expected to increase even more. For example, it is projected that in less than 40 years, the overall temperature of the planet will increase by 2 more degrees Celsius and by the end of this century, the average global temperature may rise up to 7.8 degrees Celsius (Ramanathan et al. 4). With so much attention gearing towards global warming, there are many companies making an effort to take ownership of this problem of climate change. The company that I will be discussing in this report is BMW, which is a German automobile company that was founded in 1916. More specifically, I will be analyzing
their mobility services that fits mostly under the societal transformation solutions cluster. Before talking about the actions that BMW as a company is enforcing to bend the curve of global warming, it is important to identify the two solutions of the 10 scalable solution that belong the societal transformation cluster. The first societal transformation deals with “fostering a global culture of climate action through coordinated public communication and education at local global scales” (Ramanathan et al. 15). This can be achieved by combining “technology and policy solutions with innovative approaches to changing social attitudes and behavior” (Ramanathan et al. 15). As I will discuss later in the paper, this is exactly what BMW is doing with the mobility services that they are providing to the public such as Drive Now and Park Now to name a couple. Changing people’s behavior in terms of transportation is especially important for BMW because “
fuel consumption for the transportation sector increased by a factor of five and population grew from 15.5 million in 1959 to 39 million in 2014” (Ramanathan et al. 6). By offering services that promote a change in people’s behavior towards sustainability, BMW will be able to have an influence in the automobile industry to promote bending the curve. The second societal transformation deals with “deepening the global culture of climate collaboration” (Ramanathan et al. 6). This solution is centralized on the idea that there has to be a convergence in effort of people of all discipline to come together with the goal of reducing the effects of climate change. This is crucial because we cannot view climate change from just one angle. We must view it from as many perspectives as possible to successfully fight climate change because it requires all disciplines to come together to effectively reduce global warming patterns. However, in terms of analyzing BMW as a company, we will be focusing on the first societal transformation solution because it is more aligned with what BMW is doing and what it is able to successfully do.
The role that BMW plays in this battle against global warming is significant because carbon dioxide greenhouse emission from vehicles by the automobile industry is the top two major factors that contribute to climate change. With the increase in population and industrialization as well as urbanization, climate change is happening more rapidly. For example, “since 1990, yearly emissions have gone up by about 6 billion metric tons of ‘carbon dioxide equivalent’ worldwide, more than a 20 percent increase” (National Geographic). Also, “modern car culture is responsible for about 33 percent of emissions in the United States” (Markham). This is serious because our population is growing exponentially which results in an increase in demand for cars. The result of this reality is mentioned in a report by the EPA which states that “between 1990 and 2015, GHG emissions in the transportation sector increased more in absolute terms than any other sector” (EPA). Obviously, it is evident that the automobile industry must do something about this trend and BMW is one of the main automobile company that is trailblazing a new revolution in the industry.
BMW has been working hard to find the answers to global trends of global warming and urbanization. As an automobile company, the most apparent development that BMW invest in is to make cars that do not emit any carbon dioxide greenhouse gases. In fact, BMW is actually one of the first pioneering automobile companies to release full electric vehicles to the public. They have a complete line of full electric cars that they will be releasing in the next 10 years; however, that’s not what this paper is going to be discussing. Although developing fully functional electric car is important, BMW recognizes that the solution to climate change for the automobile industry “not only require different vehicle products, but also new kinds of mobility services” (BMW Group). BMW is making that extra effort that is required to successfully bend the curve unlike many other automobile companies. This is because BMW Group claims to “consider the entire value chain, with the aim of making it as sustainable as possible” when it comes to molding the future of mobility (BMW Group). In order to achieve this goal of sustainability, BMW group has a separate team dedicated to innovating new mobility services. The “Institute for Mobility Research” is a research and development facility for BMW with the goal of “initiating cross-modal and interdisciplinary research with an international perspective in the domain of mobility and transport” (IFMO). Essentially, the ideas of mobility services that will help BMW reach a new level of sustainability were conceived in this research facility. The mobility services that I will be discussing in the next several paragraphs are “DriveNow,” “ParkNow,” and “ChargeNow.”
The first mobility service that I want to analyze in this paper is called “DriveNow.” At its core, this is a car sharing rental service that is prevalent in Europe. I would consider this the most important mobility service that BMW offers currently because of its potential for growth and impact. DriveNow currently operates in 9 different European countries and serves five cities in Germany including Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, and Munich. It gives customers access to over 6,000 electric vehicles like the BMW i3 (BMW Group). DriveNow works conveniently through an app that anyone can download. The app is able to detect nearby available cars and users will be able
rent the car straight from the app. This service is very similar to the “Spin” bikes that we have on campus of UCSD. Through this service, more people will be exposed to electric vehicles which will ultimately help in shifting people’s perspective on fully electric cars. One of the significant impact that BMW had with
DriveNow is that they were able to turn car sharing service “from a niche product into a serious mobility solution for urban travelers” (Spengler). As shown on the graph to the left, upon the introduction of DriveNow, the overall market for car sharing has significantly increased. It is worth noting that the growth of this market is mainly from DriveNow. BMW has managed to penetrate the car sharing industry with DriveNow mobility service in a way that has made car sharing more accessible. This is evident by the number of users that have signed up for DriveNow in the last several years. For example, upon market entry in the fourth
quarter of 2011, DriveNow had 12,000
members; however, that number has grown
rapidly since launch which is shown on this
graph below. It shows that by the third
quarter of 2015, the member base grew to
over 566,000 users (Spengler). The arrow
from 4th quarter of 2014 to the 3rd quarter of
2015 shows a growth of about 15,000
members per month. As of early 2018, the DriveNow mobility service caters to over 1 million users (BMW Group). That’s 1 million users who will drive electric vehicles compared to their private petroleum vehicles. This is definitely a start in the right direction for BMW as they continue to reach the goal of sustainability through their mobility services. DriveNow is currently only limited to countries in Europe; however,
BMW group trying to maximize their potential with car sharing services in other parts of the world. For example, in 2016, BMW Group launched a very similar car sharing service called “ReachNow” in the United States. BMW’s effort to globalize car sharing service is significant because many researches show that car sharing markets are inclining people to sell their vehicles or refraining/postponing them from buying a car. Survey from Center for Automobile Research showed that “on average, 41 percent of carsharing users chose to postpone or forego the purchase of a vehicle as a result of car sharing in North America [while] 25 percent of carsharing users sold their vehicles… 32 percent refrained” from buying a vehicle (CAR). Also, the survey showed that a little over 20 percent of members of car sharing service in North America got rid of at least
one personal private vehicles (CAR). The Center for Automobile has also done some research regarding projections for the future of car sharing services like DriveNow. The projection shows a significant growth in car sharing members and a
reduction of member to vehicle ratio which is significant in reducing emissions caused by cars. If this projection turns out accurate and if this trend continues, the impact that it will have on climate change is very optimistic. It is undeniable that BMW’s DriveNow mobility service will help shift how people commute and use transportation and it is only a matter of time before at least half the urban population start using car sharing services regularly. This is because “a private vehicle is not in use for an average more than 23 hours a day” (BMW Group). Therefore, people will continue to stray away from owning a private vehicle but will rely more on car sharing services like DriveNow as a means of transportation, thus reducing the effects of global warming.
The next mobility service that I wanted to discuss is “ParkNow.” The main focus of this mobility service is “to revolutionize the parking industry by making it cashless, ticketless, and hassle-free” (Frank). This mobility service works straight from most BMW cars and an app that people can download on their phones. It informs the user where there are parking spots so that the user does not have to circle around the city trying to find a parking spot. This is innovative because it can reduce city traffics in crowded cities. For example, “30 percent of city traffic in Munich comes from cars trying to find a parking space” (BMW Group). Through the ParkNow service, it is estimated that its users spend about 7 minutes less trying to park compared to people who do not use this service (BMW Group). If every car in the city can save around 7 minutes trying to find parking, imagine how much less gas the cars would burn. By creating a hassle-free parking experience for the user, ParkNow is actually helping to reduce the impacts of global warming. In order to maximize the potential of this app, BMW should allow other automobile companies to adopt a similar type of technology so that all the companies can tackle this issue of climate change together.
The last mobility service from BMW that I wanted to analyze is called “ChargeNow.” ChargeNow is a system of charging station networks that users can access. This mobility service seeks to change people’s perception of fully electric vehicles by having many charging stations available anywhere. Currently, there are “118,000 public charging outlets in 29 countries” (BMW Group). Evidently, the amount of public charging station that BMW has through ChargeNow has not yet fully convinced majority of the population to switch to electric vehicles. BMW group is still trying to rapidly push the expansion of more public charging station all over the world. However, they are not only just pushing for more charging stations but also are looking to develop more charging station with fast charging capabilities. For example, “BMW supports more than 29 projects to build fast-charging infrastructure across Europe, and more than 1,000 fast-chargers have been set up so far” (BMW Group). This is a significant feat for the BMW group because this will be the main driving force that will change people’s paradigms of electric cars. The main reason why people do not want to drive
electric cars is that they believe that electric cars are unreliable and ultimately invconvenient because they have to charge it everyday. They have an irrational fear that causes them to believe that electric cars might die on them in the middle of the day. Also, the general population probably do not want electric cars because it takes time to charge their cars compared to a gasoline car which only takes couple of minutes. However, for that reason, BMW has been trying its best to reach the level of accessibility and convenience for people to use electric cars. For example, with the new fast-charging stations, “it only takes about 30 minutes to charge an electric vehicle to 80% at a public rapid charging station” (BMW Group). This will help people transition into buying electric cars and they will be more inclined to drive it now that their preconceived worries about them have been eliminated. With ChargeNow mobility service, BMW will contribute to bending the curve as they help people make the conversion from petroleum carbon dioxide emitting vehicles to fully electric ones.
One of the major challenges that BMW faces regarding their mobility services is that there are alot of cultural boundaries that the company need to break in order for their mobility services to become omnipresent. For example, DriveNow service is most common in Europe because people in Europe do not need a private car as much as American do since the distances that Europeans travel is typically less than Americans only because everything in America is so spread apart. A challenge that I encountered was that there were not a lot of concrete data about these mobility services because all of them are less than a decade old. Even though many projections are extremely optimistic, it was hard to gauge how accurate these projections will be in the future because mobility services like this in the automobile industry has never been accomplished before. Despite the fact, BMW seems to be on a promising track to help combat global warming from an automobile industry’s standpoint.
Ultimately, BMW is not trying to bend the curve just by producing fully electric cars; they are trying to shift how people are using their vehicles and the way people get to places. Through the different mobility services that BMW is offering, it is clear that their end goal is to reduce the effects of global warming. It will take a while for all
companies in the automobile industry to catch up with what BMW is doing in terms of mobility research; however, what BMW is doing for the automobile industry is that it is acting as one of the pioneers for this whole movement. With the mobilities services that BMW will continue to offer, they seek to transform our society to make healthier decision for our environment. BMW should not look to thrive with their mobility services on their own; rather, they should help other automobile companies reach the level that they are at in terms of promoting change for the environment.