Daimler and BMW have joined hands to combine their urban mobility services under the umbrella of a new global player. This was actually planned in March last year and now Daimler and BMW are ready to invest $1.1 billion on five joint ventures – Reach Now, Charge Now, Park Now, Free Now and Share Now. Daimler and BMW are already serving 60 million customers worldwide.
“Our mobility services have developed a strong customer base and we are now taking the next strategic step. We are pooling the strength and expertise of 14 successful brands and investing more than €1 billion to establish a new player in the fast-growing market for urban mobility,” stated Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. “By creating an intelligent network of joint ventures, we will be able to shape current and future urban mobility and draw maximum benefit from the opportunities opened up by digitalization, shared services and the increasing mobility needs of our customers. Further cooperations with other providers, including stakes in startups and established players, are also a possible option.”
“We are creating a leading global game changer. The 60 million customers we already have today will benefit from a seamlessly integrated, sustainable ecosystem of car-sharing, ride-hailing, parking, charging and multimodal transport services. We have a clear vision: these five services will merge ever more closely to form a single mobility service portfolio with an all-electric, self-driving fleet of vehicles that charge and park autonomously and interconnect with the other modes of transport,” stated Harald Krüger, Management Board Chairman of BMW AG. “This service portfolio will be a key cornerstone in our strategy as a mobility provider. The cooperation is the perfect way for us to maximize our chances in a growing market while sharing the investments.”
REACH NOW is for multimodal services, CHARGE NOW is for charging, FREE NOW is a taxi ride-hailing service, PARK NOW is for parking and SHARE NOW is for car-sharing.
- REACH NOW serves over 6.7 million users giving them easy and straight access to a variety of mobility services via a single multimodal platform. The REACH NOW apps will render users a number of choices for getting from A to B, letting them book and pay straight for public transport and different other mobility choices including car-sharing, ride-hailing, and bike rentals. Daniela Gerd tom Markotten will serve as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of REACH NOW while Johannes Prantl will be the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
- CHARGE NOW
As the name suggests, it is a public charging points network for EVs. Offered by Digital Charging Solutions GmbH (DCS), users can conveniently locate, use and pay for the service, both in their residing country and overseas. The service is available for different car manufacturers and fleet operators. DCS already has 100,000 charge points across 25 countries allowing customers to take advantage of all these.
- PARK NOW
Again, as the name suggests, it allows users to park, on-street or off. They can reserve parking spaces and handle their parking times. The service also permits ticketless entry and exit in public garages in addition to cashless payment of parking fees. PARK NOW aims to make cities neater, better and more liveable by taking care of the public’s parking needs. The service is already operational in Europe and North America. About 30 million customers are taking advantage of this in over 1,100 cities. CHARGE NOW and PARK NOW both are under the supervision of Jörg Reimann who is serving as CEO, and Thomas Menzel who is working as CFO.
- FREE NOW is all about mobility offering taxis, private chauffeurs with rental vehicles, and high-tech e-scooters through apps. FREE NOW is regarded as one of the biggest ride-hailing services in Europe and Latin America. They are already taking care of over 21 million customers and over 250,000 drivers. Marc Berg is serving as the CEO, while Sebastian Hofelich is working as CFO.
- SHARE NOW
This car-sharing service lets customers rent and pay for vehicles by the tap of a finger. Although over 4 million customers are currently using around 20,000 vehicles in 31 cities around the world, the Daimler and BMW partnership will expand its operation. Daimler and BMW have made Olivier Reppert the CEO of SHARE NOW while Stefan Glebke will serve as CFO.
As the Daimler and BMW start pouring money into these ventures, we see around 1,000 new jobs created worldwide. BMW CEO believes these five services will merge and create an end-to-end service. “We have a clear vision: these five services will merge ever more closely to form a single mobility service portfolio with an all-electric, self-driving fleet of vehicles that charge and park autonomously and interconnect with the other modes of transport,” he said.