BMW, Daimler Ready to Launch Joint Mobility Company

BMW AG and Daimler AG have received regulatory approvals to combine their ride-sharing, car-sharing, parking and electric charging services under one smartphone app.

The companies expect to complete the merger of those services by the end of January. The resulting 50:50 joint venture, whose name has not yet been announced, plans to announce detail about its strategy during the first quarter of 2019.

The partners say the new company will combine their existing mobility businesses under five service areas:

• Car Sharing will merge Daimler’s Car2Go and BMW’s DriveNow services, which operate 20,000 vehicles in 30 cities worldwide.
• Ride-Hailing via four services already offered by the partners. They are mytaxi Chauffeur Privé and Clever Taxi (in Europe), and Beat (in South America).
• On-Demand Mobility will combine Daimler moovel and BMW ReachNow, which help 6 million users seamlessly connect with and pay for bike rental, taxi, carshare and public transport options through a single platform.
• Parking search assistance through BMW;s ParkNow and Parkmobile services, which offer cashless on-street parking and off-street parking spot reservations
• EV Charging, which will combine BMW’s ChargeNow service and Digital Charging Solutions subsidiary that enable electric-car operators to find charging stations and pay for their use.