Car sharing services from BMW and Daimler: Car2Go and DriveNow merger on the home straight

01/24/2018

Carsharing services from BMW and Daimler Car2Go and DriveNow merger on the home straight

Carsharing cars from Car2Go (left, Daimler) and Drive Now (right, BMW): Still in February probably official

Will it finally be something with the merger of Car2Go and DriveNow? In front more than a year The manager magazin has already reported on the merger plans of the car sharing services of BMW and Daimler. Now report the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ) and the news agency Reuters, citing high-ranking Automanager that the talks on a merger of the daughters are nearing completion and will be announced in February.

BMW brings its subsidiaries Drive Now and Park Now, Daimler, its Car2Go business into the joint company, it goes on. The new company should operate independently, but the two car companies remained on board as major shareholders.

According to the “FAZ” the brands Drive Now and Car2Go are to be maintained, but the offers are bundled on a common internet platform. Neither Daimler nor BMW commented.

Against the plans of the two carmakers to ally against the American carpooling service Uber in Europe, locked at first the car rental company Sixt, which owns half of the shares of DriveNow. At the end of May 2017 manager magazin reported that Sixt is now open to cooperation, In addition, the alliance should go so far that the two car sharing services in the future could occur under a common name,

According to the “FAZ”, Sixt is said to have agreed with its partner BMW on a purchase offer for a portion of the shares and the trademark rights. Sixt will become a minority partner. The company was initially unable to reach an opinion. DriveNow recently said that this year, “business model choices are underway to open up car sharing for other use cases.”

Car sharing has received a lot of attention in recent years. With offers such as Car2Go and DriveNow the cars can be located in certain metropolitan areas by mobile phone and be put off after use at any place again.

However, the companies earn little so far in the short-term rent. Car producers such as Daimler and BMW also see car sharing as an entry point for potential customers who have tested such vehicles and later decided to buy their own car. Car2Go has 14,000 cars and three million customers, DriveNow has 6,000 cars and 1 million customers. The two companies did not comment on sales, profits or losses.

mg / AFX / rtr

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