Earlier this year BMW announced the possibility of starting a joint-venture mobility service with its age-old rival, the Daimler Group. The two companies were awaiting, however, for the relevant authorities in the competition field to approve this new venture, as there was a chance to have it dismissed on various grounds. Today though, the European regulators gave the two companies the green light for the next stage.
The joint venture will focus on urban mobility, creating a new offering that is easy to access, intuitive and focused on the needs of the user. This combines CarSharing, Ride-Hailing, Parking, Charging and Multimodality from a single source and is available with just a few taps. The idea is to create the most attractive, most comprehensive mobility solution for a better life in our connected world, according to BMW.
The transaction between the two giants will be completed by January 31st, following yesterday’s ruling by the US competition authorities. The ruling means that all antitrust authorities involved have given the green light for the new joint venture, which is owned in equal parts by the BMW Group and Daimler AG. Once this major transaction closes, the new mobility company will present next steps in the first quarter of 2019.
The new initiative will be comprised of five major services provided by various companies owned by BMW and Daimler. There’s the Ride-Hailing side of things, which will be covered by mytaxi, Chauffeur Prive, Clever Taxi and Beat, then there’s the Parking feature covered by ParkNow and Parkmobile, the Charging side is covered by ChargeNow and Digital Charging Solutions, the CarSharing feature is comprised of the offerings from Car2Go and DriveNow while Multimodal and on-demand mobility services are covered by moovel and ReachNow.
