Daimler and BMW announce official collaboration on car-sharing business

Daimler and BMW have confirmed that they will merge their mobility services business units.

Following months of speculation, the two German giants of the automotive industry have officially revealed that they will collaborate to 'shape sustainable urban mobility of the future'.

According to a statement released this week, each company will hold a 50-percent stake in a joint-venture model comprising both companies’ mobility services to become a leading provider in the field.

Earlier this month, Daimler acquired 100% control of German carsharing service car2go Europe for €70mn from Europcar Group, fuelling rumours of its intentions to merge car2go with BMW's mobility service DriveNow.

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Services will be combined in the five areas of multimodal/on-demand mobility, CarSharing, Ride-Hailing, Parking and Charging, fields where both companies operate a number of smaller entities.

"As pioneers in automotive engineering, we will not leave the task of shaping future urban mobility to others," said Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. "There will be more people than ever before without a car who will still want to be extremely mobile. We want to combine our expertise and experience to develop a unique, sustainable ecosystem for urban mobility."

BMW Chairman Harald Krüger added: "Combining our mobility services as planned will create a unique digital ecosystem. This alliance will make it easier for our customers to discover the emission-free mobility of the future."

The joint project is subject to examination and approval by the respective competition authorities.