BMW and Daimler (Mercedes) join forces to create new MOBILITY business to take on Uber and more

BMW and Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) are joining forces to create a new mobility company to deliver Car Sharing, Ride-Hailing, Parking, Charging and Multimodality services across the globe.

The whole ‘Mobility’ thing is expected to be the main way we move around in the future, but it’s still a nascent market with new players like Uber making most of the running. But BMW and Daimler have plans to change that, and plan to join forces to deliver everything from Car Sharing and Ride Hailing to Parking under single global, 50:50 owned business.

Both BMW and Mercedes already have a plethora of ‘Mobility’ businesses under their respective umbrellas including Car2Go and DriveNow, myTaxi, Chauffeur Prive, Clever Taxi and more. But they will all come together under the new business. Well, as long as BMW and Daimler get regulatory approval for the plan.

The as yet unnamed joint venture will see BMW and Daimler offering on-demand mobility – including booking and payment – as well as developing solutions for private urban transport, Car Sharing (Car2Go and DriveNow already have 20,000 vehicles in 31 cities and four million customers), Ride Hailing, where the two companies already have 13 million customers and 140,000 drivers, Parking, with ticketless and cashless parking on and off-street, and Charging with their existing ChargeNow and Digital Charging Solutions.

Just as Tesla is having to take a long hard look at how it moves forward now established car makers are delivering models which offer what Tesla do, the likes of Uber and Lyft must be hoping the regulatory authorities put the block on this venture. But that seems unlikely.