BMW has joined forces with leading car hire company, Sixt, to launch a new car sharing scheme which will launch in Munich next month.

The new system, DriveNow, will allow registered users the chance to hire premium BMW and MINI cars at a highly competitive rate of €0.29 a minute or €14.90 an hour while reduced rates are offered for when the car is hired by a customer, but is not being driven.

The new car sharing scheme is an attempt by BMW to raise its profile in key European cities where car ownership is slowly being shunned in favour of convenient car rental.

To be eligible to use the DriveNow car hire scheme, you must first become a registered member and pay a joining fee of €29. There are no rental centres, instead members either log on to the website, or via an app on their mobile phone, to locate their nearest vehicle. Once the member agrees to hire the car online, they can open the car using a chip in their licence, no key is required.

The DriveNow car hire scheme will launch in Munich in April before being rolled out in Berlin later in the summer. BMW and Sixt car hire hope to bring the system to a number of European cities over the course of the coming year. By 2020 BMW aims to have 1 million members using their DriveNow scheme.