Taxi app mytaxi rebrands to FREE NOW from today

Taxi app, mytaxi, has rebranded as FREE NOW as part of joining the wider-mobility international “NOW” brand family.

It was announced today that the FREE NOW app will be operational in 100 cities across Europe, with a subscription service which allows passengers to pre-purchase time-limited plans for discounted journeys also being trialled.

The company is also 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 to use the FREE NOW taxi service, an update of the app is all that is needed to hail the next available taxi.

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.

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 SHARE NOW (car-sharing solutions), REACH NOW (multi-modal), PARK NOW (mobile parking by app) and CHARGE NOW (electric charging infrastructure).