Episode 10: Richard Steinberg, CEO of BMW’s DriveNow, on future of “mobility services”
With the rise of electric vehicles, car sharing, and upstart companies like Tesla, there is little doubt that the auto industry is rapidly evolving. The question is, will the conventional business model that served the industry so well in the 20th century be upended from the outside, or can the major auto companies disrupt themselves?
For BMW’s latest thinking on this question, and other great insights, please watch our conversation with Richard Steinberg, CEO of BMW’s DriveNow.
We look under the hood on BMW’s Project i initiative to understand trends in megacities and how BMW can address them; its $100 million i Ventures fund to seed a broad array of mobility startups; and BMW’s pioneering DriveNow offering that marries premium electric vehicles with point-A-to-point-B carsharing.
New competition aside, adapting to our fast-changing attitude towards vehicles may be the industry’s greatest challenge—a 2012 Gartner study found that 46% of 18-24 year olds would opt for a smartphone over car ownership. In the face of this growing trend, Richard shares with us what it means to become “the leading provider of premium mobility services”, and what steps BMW is taking to realize this ambition.
