The worst you can do when you arrive in Berlin Willy Brandt airport is, to take a taxi. The majorities of cabbies waiting at the airport is questionable. I have had out of a 100 transports ZERO at correct prices / shortest way. Some are just driving a small deviation, others bigger. All like to cheat you with the luggage (no, it is included) and many don’t know even where to go. Always ugly discussions. Often the cars are dirty too. Not recommendable. How to get to the new airiport?
This page is not updated concerning the car share companies! They are just to little reliable! For actual news please scroll to the end!
If you don’t like to go with S-Bahn or FEX Regional Express, you can go with Bolt, Uber or Free Now. The Apps needed to be downloaded.
FreeNow and Bolt are a service like Lyft in USA and serve a big area. All three have permanent promotions. Get the app and they will send you promo codes.
You can book FreeNow four days in advance through the App. If you – as new customer – use my code “ch.rom” you’ll get a 20 € Voucher for your first tour with FreeNow. I get 10 € Voucher too! Perfect for an airport tour, that will be almost 50 €! FreeNow is available in Hamburg, Berlin, München, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Köln. Be careful, the App is confusing. You can also book regular taxis with it. Than you pay the high Taxi price. Click only on RIDE!
Free Now & Co which is normally for four person.
If you use public transport you pay for 4 tickets 9 € in the AB zone. C zone (=Airport, Potsdam) is more expensive. The tickets are 2 hours valid and you can change buses and trains, but you can not go back with them. The are also tickets for short distance and students. See www.BVG.de for information. They do have a handy ticket app.
I personally prefer to go with my own car. But I don’t have one in Berlin. I live in Charlottenburg. If I rent a garage place for a car, I pay 250 €/month. I am using car share. There are now plenty of cars.
Mostly I used MILES (to airport or back max 25 €) or WeShare. Sometimes ShareNow or SixtShare. They all have brand new cars with low mileage. You find them in the App and start with the App. The only negative are the other clients: Why would you leave your car like a garbage bin?
Petrol and insurance etc are included, a CDW too. But in case you damage they will ask you for your share, which is normally below 1000 €. Parking in public areas is for free (you don’t need to buy a ticket!). But you should not park in a garage. Specially We-Share needs always GPS. The app will tell you, come closer to the car, even you are leaning over it already! And it will not open. It can make you crazy!
For car share you just download the App and than follow their instructions. You’ll need a Driving license, passport, mobile phone, credit card and mostly an address in Germany. As address you can take your Hotel. Please give me a feedback, with what country papers it worked and with which ones it does not.
WeShare. They have 1500 electric Golf with automatic transmission in Berlin. You don’t feel differences to regular cars. Only you are never sure if the engine is already running!
Prices:
19 cents per minute + 1 €
After about 200 minutes you pay 39 € for 24 hrs. This is the cheapest daily rate on the market.
Airport TXL and SXF (BER) seems to be with no extra charge!
Minimum age: 21 – minimum one year old driving license.
We-Share is exclusively in Berlin.
https://www.we-share.io
Miles offers black VW Polo, Audi A1, Fiat 500, Audi A3 and VW Golf Variant. Other than all other companies Miles charge per km, not per minute! 89 cents for a km. For parking time and loading you’ll pay 29 cents per minute additional. In a traffic jam you save money and nerves.
You can rent 6 hours for 35 € (incl. 75 kms) or a day for 59 € (incl. 150 km). Additional kms 29 cents.
Miles also offers Transporters for 1.19 €/km or 6 hrs 59 €, daily 99 €.
All fees plus 1 € “unlock fee”. They all do now. Gives them extra income.
Airport TXL and SXF (BER) are with no extra charge!
When you know you will use it – and it is a recommendable service – take their offer for new clients Mileshello 25 or 100. With 100 you pay 50 € but get 100 credit. This is only valid when you register! After registration you pay 85 € to get a 100 € credit.
If you enter my Gutschein (voucher) code 54h6mngY, we both get a 10 € credit 😉
Besides Berlin you’ll find MILES in Hamburg, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Munich.
https://miles-mobility.com/
Share-Now is the oldest service and they have an english page explaining all. It is based on minutes like WeShare, but more expensive. They have a bigger variety of cars and all kind of tariffs. Their Smart category is 26 cents/minutes, but most cars are 36 cents + 1 Euro. For airport use you pay additional 6 €uro in average.
The also have hourly and daily offers until 2 weeks. Unfortunately the website does not give much informations. On my App it says 36 cents/minutes or 2 hours for 23 € incl. 80 km, 4 hours for 39 € incl. 120 km, 6 hrs for 54 € incl. 160 km. (MILES charges for 6 hrs 35 €, WE-SHARE for 24 hrs 39€.)
Long term rates are starting with 60 € per one day PLUS 19 cents per km and finish with 370 € for 14 days, PLUS 19 cents per km. You can rent any amount of days between 1 and 14.
https://www.share-now.com
SIXT has also a car share department. You do not find their cars often and on the App it is difficult to see them, as they also offer to rent scooters (which are often more expensive than cars!) and the map is full with them. They claim they are the cheapest and start with 9 cents/minute for a Renault Zoe (59 €/day). 200 kms are included per rental. Extra kms start with 34 cents. Very special is their policy that you are allowed to return the car at any Sixt Station in Germany for 15 € or airports for 27 €.
Sixt Share also have cars on the berlin airports but with additional cost between 5 -7 €.
Sixt asks for a registration fee of 29 €, but when you use my registration code it is for free and we both get 60 € in credits. In fact it is 20 € for care share.
Sixt is a bit like Ryanair. Be always aware that you don’t click on insurance or similar. You need to read exactly what they mean and ask for and if you don’t do it, it might get expensive. If you understand the system, they are the cheapest with their hourly rate for a small car (Renault Zoe). But if you drop at the airport, We Share or Miles might be better. From my understanding it should be possible to drive 4 persons from Berlin to Leipzig Main Station for less than 40 € (2 hrs drive, less than 200 kms). But you need to double check. This is a great price. Even Bus is more expensive! Sixt Share is available in Berlin, Bochum, Dresden, Duisburg, Hamburg, Leipzig, München and Nuremberg.
Are you traveling / living on a tight budget? Then refuel the cars and you get credits. Every company has a bit different rules, please check their sites. But normally one refill pays for the trip.
There are at least two more companies. Oply and Flinkster. Oply is more for hourly (6 €) or daily (45 € incl. 150 kms) use. Oply cars are parked in special zones.
Flinkster cars have their own car park. If you live close to a flinkster spot, it might be convenient to use them. You need to return the car to the exactly same spot. You pay for Flinkster per hour + km. I do not see for me a big advantage with them. Also you pay 9 € for registration. All prices
Oply stops services end of February 2020.
For weekend trips I recommend Audi on Demand. You get fantastic offers from Audi. The rent starts at noon on a Friday and goes until Monday 8 a.m. You can not return during the weekend. You must give back the car personally. This is for me a reason, why I would not book. I would park the car on the parking Sunday night, deposit the keys in their keybox. But between 7 and 8 a.m. to be there, is a no go for me. Three additional drivers are allowed for free.
An A1 Sportsback costs 73 €, an Audi A8L less than 200 € for the weekend, all kms included. Petrol is full out, full in.
Another service is TURO. Private people offer their own cars for a low price.Something like Air’BnB in the beginning, but for cars. I saw cars for a daily rate of 20 €. I have no experience with them. If I need daily, I take WeShare (39€/24h).
Comparison of prices 13.2.2020 10.25 h
From Potsdamer Platz to Rahaus Home (good furniture store in Ringstrasse 30, 12105 Berlin – Mariendorf. Tour takes 30 minutes for 9 km. I calculate with three person.
- We-Share 6.70 € (but not recommendable – read at the end)
- BVG 6.75 € (if you bought the 4 pieces ticket)
- CleverShuttle 8.03 € (max 5 persons incl. – may be promotional price) – no more existing
- MILES 9.01 (but not recommendable – read at the end)
- ShareNow 11.8
- FreeNow 18.20 € (price without voucher)
- Taxi 25.00 €
(add a tipp for the driver on 3,6 and 7: 1 € minimum or 10 % recommended )
The prices of 3, 5 and 6 are flexible. If demand is low, prices are down. If demand is high, prices go up! Clever Shuttle is 30 % more expensive in peak times, FreeNow can be double or more in peak time.
Some general remarks
The new mobility is a great thing. Especially for the consumer. Because they benefit from low prices. most As far as I know, no company makes a profit yet. That means that the employees and/or the investors pay for it.
The drivers of FreeNow often don’t get a salary, only a commission. They usually don’t even get minimum wage, similar to UBER drivers.
The drivers of Clevershuttle, on the other hand, are paid far above the legal minimum wage and receive a bonus if they have worked well.
The apps of MILES and Share Now are well developed. The Sixt app is unappealing with all its nuisances and tricks. And the WE-SHARE app is a shame for the owner Volkswagen. The App is so annoying that I avoid We Share, although I like them and they are often the cheapest. I have already spent hours trying to open or close a We SHARE Golf. The friendly hotline helped. But I have to pay the phone charges myself. And it’s my time. If you are working We Share becomes quickly very expensive with all their bugs. The App loves to lose you. So you need to login. Of course you find out, when you are at the car and you want to open it. After one password it tells you , too many trials. Try later. Than I would like to take the offer to get the password resend. The app tells you, we can not send email to xx@bahrain.ro.
The Hotline recommend to delete and reinstall the app. This worked one time.
I am surprised that there is no Volkswagen Management that changes all the bugs in the app.
ShareNow and FreeNow belongs to YourNow, a Daimler-BMW Joint venture.
WeShare belongs to Volkswagen.
SIXT Share belongs to the Rental Car Company.
CleverShuttle belongs to Deutsche Bahn and Mitsui..
MILES is a Berlin start up, founded by three Berliners.
The new mobility world can also suck a lot. Suddenly Miles booked 15 Euro from my Credit card. I send them twice emails, no response. My emails did not arrive there and their emails did not arrive me. Very strange. This was a fee for a ticket, they said on the phone. After I had trust in Miles I booked a credit for 85 €. 70 € they “lost” after I had a 3 day rental. Emails were not answered. When I called them, several times, they explained me, all is correct.
One agent, Mike Miller, looked correctly in the subject and gave me my credit back.
Next day I was blocked at MILES because my Schufa rating is poor. They blocked again my credit! So I have credit there, but can’t you it!
We Share booked 39 €, the fee for a day rent yesterday. But I can not use We Share since 6 weeks or more as the IT is not able to reset my password. And I send them emails every three days.
When I wrote them about the 39.- €, they say, it must be an old invoice what they charged now. They once charged me double, so they cancelled one. I guess it is this one which they charge again. We Share is chaos pure if you use it frequently. What you save money wise, you lose time wise.
Only Share Now works without mayor problems.
I bought now a car as I can’t bear any more the problems with We Share and Miles. When I count the hours I need to control them and discuss the problems and they can not solve them, it is cheaper with a own car! I still can not use We -Share, as they don’t have their system under control and I can not log in. Also I wait for my 39 € which they took by mistake twice. They do not understand their mistake.
By the way, I asked all media departments of all concerned companies to check the content. Only CleverShuttle was doing their job, no one else! Share Now added me in their media distribution.
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