BCR launches electric car-sharing service in Bucharest – what’s the cost

BCR, the biggest lender in Romania by assets controlled by Austrian Erste, has launched in Bucharest its first electric car-sharing service called eGo.

In the initial phase, the program will include a fleet 20 electric cars under the BMW i3 brand, but their number will be adjusted depending on demand.

“The service is designed both for retail customers and for companies that want to offer their employees a modern service for urban mobility,” said Dana Demetrian, vice president Retail & Private Banking at BCR.

The key for the cars is replaced by the contactless card issued by BCR, while the whole program is based on a mobile app.

In order to use eGo, customers need to have a BCR account, to hold a debit or contactless card and to use the mobile app.

The lender said that the cars can be found in any point of the city, but the recommendation is to have them in the central and northern part of Bucharest. The bank will grant bonuses that leave the cars in one of the charging stations.

How much?

There are two predefined pricing systems for retail and corporate clients. The base tariff for BCR customers will be of RON 10 (fixed cost) on top of which there will be a price of RON 0.4 (VAT included) per minute. There are options to buy packages of half an hour of operations.

“According to an internal BMW Group study for our car-sharing services in Europe, 38 percent of the customers of this program have sold their personal car,” said Dana Popescu, brand manager BMW i Romania.

The BMW i3 battery can reach an 80 percent charging capacity in 40 minutes. This is enough for an autonomy of 200 kilometers in normal driving conditions, according to BCR.