Daimler/BMW team-up for sustainable urban mobility services

BMW Group and Daimler AG are joining forces to offer customers a single source for sustainable urban mobility services. The two companies have signed an agreement to merge their mobility services business units. Subject to examination and approval by the responsible competition authorities, the BMW Group and Daimler AG plan to combine and strategically expand their existing on-demand mobility offering in the areas of CarSharing, Ride-Hailing, Parking, Charging and Multimodality. Each company will hold a 50% stake in a joint-venture model comprising both business’s mobility services.

One of the ways the partnership is hoped to combine services is through their work on multimodal and on-demand mobility. It is intended to enhance intelligent and seamless connectivity between different mobility offerings (including coaches and buses) incorporating booking and payment. This is expected to create significant added value for users. It will also offer possible solutions for the challenges of urban private transport. The joint venture is also envisioned to improve possibilities for car sharing, ride hailing, parking and vehicle charging.

Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, Dieter Zetsche, said: “As pioneers in automotive engineering, we will not leave the task of shaping future urban mobility to others. 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. At Daimler, we are vigorously and systematically pursuing our transformation from automobile manufacturer to provider of mobility services with our CASE strategy. CASE stands for connectivity, automated driving, sharing & services and electric mobility.”