BMW launched a new car-sharing service in London on Thursday, just six months after rival automaker Daimler said it was shutting down its own car-sharing initiative in Britain.

The DriveNow service, already found in Austria, Germany and in the U.S., operates in partnership with rental firm Sixt and allows users who pay a registration fee to find and open their nearest car by card or through a mobile phone app.

The service will start in three boroughs in North London and will compete with Avis' Zipcar and Hertz's 24/7. Customers will be able to return vehicles anywhere within the zone, according to the automaker.

Daimler decided to end its Car2Go operation from Britain back in May, citing the country's strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership, though it still operates in cities like Rome and Berlin.

"What we think we have to do differently is start on a smaller scale (and) prove the concept that this is something successful," Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW board member with responsibility for mobility services, said to Reuters. "If you have proven it, then you can step by step grow this organically."

The business currently has more than 360,000 customers around the world.

Daimler said it was too hard to coordinate its network of "free-floating" parking spaces across non-adjoining London authorities. BMW's DriveNow will work only from one zone in the north of the city, according to Reuters.

French billionaire Vincent Bollore announced back in March that he wants to bring 3,000 electric cars to London's streets no later than 2016 as part of a car-share project. Bollore wants to emulate the city's bike hire scheme.

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