’s biggest taxi app mytaxi rebrands to FREE NOW

‘Match’ taxi-sharing service first innovation of new app, with subscription services and e-scooters planned

Tuesday, July 2, 2019: mytaxi, Ireland’s largest taxi app, has today become FREE ​ NOW as part of joining the wider-mobility international “NOW” brand family, it has been announced.

The FREE NOW app will be operational in 100 cities across Europe, with ‘match’, the new taxi-sharing service being piloted across locations in , its first innovation for Irish passengers. FREE NOW is also trialling a subscription service which allows passengers to pre-purchase time-limited plans for discounted journeys, and is exploring the possibility of an e-scooter service in Ireland once Irish regulations allow for them.

Passengers do not need to download a new app and there is no technical or data switch with FREE NOW - customers just have to update their app and they’re ready to hail. Alan Fox, General Manager for FREE NOW Ireland, said: “FREE NOW is the first service from the BMW/Daimler joint venture and the NOW group that is live – and our plan now is to develop the app to become a broader mobility provider, offering multi-service solutions in one app into the future. Our new ‘Match’ technology is a first step in this respect and forms part of a smart solution to better use FREE NOW’s fleet in Ireland, particularly at peak hours, offering passengers a cheaper, more environmentally-friendly taxi-sharing service. A pilot with Smart Dublin, our intention is to roll out FREE NOW ‘Match’ across more Dublin locations and ultimately the nation as part of our drive to offer customers a more flexible, cost-effective transport solution that really meets their needs. We have also been trialling a subscription service over the past few months where passengers pre-purchase time limited plans for discounted journeys, and we are exploring other possibilities like e-scooter services in Ireland which we intend to launch once the regulations allow for them.”

Eckart Diepenhorst, CEO Europe for FREE NOW, said: “This day is a huge milestone for the whole organisation. We started the transition to a multiservice mobility provider a while ago by launching the hive scooter brand across some markets last year, but the rebrand to FREE NOW marks a further step towards offering different services within the app. Whilst taxis will always be the core of our business, we strongly believe that we will need to have further mobility options in future. User demands, regulatory frameworks and the technical options for mobility are constantly changing and in order to maintain and grow our customer base, we need to develop in order to fulfil our mission, which is to make mobility available for everyone - independent of age, income or background.”

FREE NOW is part of the brand family created through the mobility merger of BMW and Daimler, with other services within that family to include (car-sharing solutions), REACH NOW (multi-modal), PARK NOW (mobile parking by app) and CHARGE NOW (electric charging infrastructure).

FREE NOW Ireland’s objectives for the rest of 2019 and into 2020 will be to meet the growing public demand for taxis through innovative solutions, increase its fleet size further, and the expansion of its regional footprint across the country. 16 million passengers were carried in Ireland by mytaxi in 2018, its busiest year ever.

ENDS/

For more information, please contact: Glen McGahern 086 1940057 / [email protected] ​

About FREE NOW FREE NOW (formerly mytaxi), is a leading multiservice mobility provider which currently operates in 100 cities across Europe, with 14 million passengers and more than 100,000 drivers. It is part of the mobility joint venture between BMW and Daimler, formed in February 2019, and works with 750 employees from 68 nations in 26 offices across Europe. Eckart Diepenhorst is the CEO Europe of FREE NOW.