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DriveNow and Car2go: The merger is in the final meters
After months of negotiations, they were able to clarify their issues: BMW Show stock market chart and Daimler Show stock market chart have submitted the merger of their car-sharing offers to the EU Commission for approval. In advance, the corporations had already discussed a number of formal matters with competent authorities. The approval of the transaction was therefore already registered in several countries and released in part. for the first time manager magazin had already reported in December 2016 on the plans of the merger.
At the same time, the automotive giants announced on Thursday that their new mobility company as expected will be sitting in Berlin. The intention is to consciously establish the provider outside the corporate structures in the “dynamic environment”.
The idea of the merger is to combine offers such as Car2go, DriveNow or even the taxi order app MyTaxi in one company. Parking and e-car charging apps should also be part of the new unit. Together, as BMW and Daimler hope, they can develop more clout. “Size is important in this business,” said BMW CEO Peter Schwarzenbauer earlier this year, as he spoke for the new alliance looking for partners was in China and the US. Even now, the corporations stress that they want to scale quickly worldwide. The EU should become the most important market for the new joint venture. DriveNow has more than one million customers across Europe, Car2Go more than three million.
The European Commission has announced on Tuesday, in another matter to tighten their investigations against German carmakers: at the exhaust scandal. Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen are under suspicion to have agreed in the emission control and competition have overridden.
Great hopes, difficult business
The current project of Daimler and BMW had dragged on, as initially DriveNow major shareholder Sixt had blocked against the transaction, At the end of January, the car rental company had sold its 50 percent stake in DriveNow to BMW for € 209 million. Disagreements over the assessment of the new entity had further delayed the plans. From group circles it said last, you got up around 2.5 billion euros Goodwill agreed. The new company will be led by current Moovel boss Daniela Gerd tom Markotten.
Car sharing is becoming increasingly popular, so that the automotive companies hope for a lucrative business field away from their classic sales revenue. However, they have barely earned the model so far, where customers can locate and rent cars by app. Every minute is charged, users can usually park throughout the city (so-called “free floating”). Concrete business figures are not revealed by the companies.
Although the two car sharing pioneers are now joining forces, they are not safe from new competition. In July had Volkswagen announced unexpectedly, want to start a car-sharing service in Germany next year. In the fleet of ?? “We” ?? should there be only electric vehicles. One still sees potential in the market, said the sales boss of the brand VW, Jürgen Stackmann. In the past, the group failed with a first attempt in the segment.
Not only VW hopes so late for a chance in the business: the Opel-dam PSA wants to start in late 2018, a larger car-sharing offer in Paris, also with electric cars. Volvo’s car-sharing service under its own mobility brand “M” is expected to be available in spring 2019 in Sweden and later in the US.
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