EU: Daimler, BMW to unite in car sharing joint venture

Daimler and BMW, two German luxury carmakers, revealed on Friday, February 22, their plans to invest more than one €1 billion euros (US$1.13 billion) in the establishment of a new joint car sharing business, reported the Financial Times.

“We are creating a leading global game changer,” said Harald Krueger, management board chairman of BMW at a press conference in Berlin.

Daimler and BMW are planning to merge 14 of their existing car sharing businesses, such as car2go, DriveNow, as well as booking platforms and cab renting apps like ReachNow and MyTaxi.

The cooperation between the two German luxury carmakers is aiming to create five joint ventures for car sharing, parking, charging stations for electric vehicles, mobility platforms, as well as ride-sharing services.

According to Daimler and BMW, the combined number of customers of the services to be merged currently amount to 60 million worldwide. “Further cooperations with other providers, including stakes in startups and established players” would also be taken into consideration, said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler, at the press conference.