BMW and Daimler merge their mobility services
Five existing joint ventures are to be integrated into the alliance of the two mobility providers: Reach Now (Multimodal), Charge Now (charging services), Free Now (Ride Hailing), Park Now (parking) and Share Now (car sharing).
After building up a strong customer base, the next strategic step will be to create a strong global player, said Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. He added that the company wants to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitization, shared services and the increasing mobility needs of around 60 million existing customers worldwide. The Daimler CEO indicated that cooperation with other providers and the takeover of startups are also possible. The company’s activities will initially focus on major cities in Europe and North America. Headquarters are in Berlin.
The following companies are to be integrated into the planned mobility service providers:
- Reach Now. The company provides its 6.7 million customers with a platform that can be accessed via a smartphone app. The platform offers customers a variety of options for travel from A to B, including local public transport, ride hailing and rental bicycles.
- Charge Now operates a charging infrastructure for electric cars with more than 100,000 charging points in 25 countries, enabling their drivers to find, use and pay for charging stations at home and abroad.
- Park Now simplifies parking in multi-storey car parks and on the roadside. The platform makes it possible to find and reserve free parking spaces, control parking times and make cashless payments. The service helps to reduce parking search traffic, which now accounts for almost 30% of traffic in cities. The company has more than 30 million customers in over 1100 cities.
- Free Now offers various mobility services. The 21 million customers can order a taxi, a private driver or an e-scooter.
- Share Now is a free-floating car sharing service. More than 4 million customers in 31 metropolises can rent vehicles spontaneously and flexibly for short periods. The operators hope that the offer will increase vehicle capacity utilisation and reduce the total number of vehicles in the cities.
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