Photo: BMW
When Daimler and BMW first announced the merger of their mobility operations into a single unit last year, they revealed breathtaking growth and target numbers. They seemed overly-optimistic at the time, but the reality shows both German carmakers were right.
Between BMW’s DriveNow, Daimler’s car2go, and their other associated business, the joint venture between the two now has 90 million customers. That’s an increase of 44 percent compared to the start of the year, a jump not easily achievable in this emerging, yet overcrowded industry.
One of the main driving forces behind the growth is the Free Now app, whose revenues have now reached two billion euros (roughly the same amount in dollars), says BMW.
Hoping to get an equal flow of capital from the other two joint services, Share Now and Park Now & Charge Now, the two German companies announced this week the creation of an umbrella organization to govern them all. The company will begin operations on January 1, 2020.
“We are setting the course for the YOUR NOW joint ventures to achieve sustainable profitability,” said in a statement Rainer Feurer, Senior Vice President Investment of BMW Group.
“At the same time, partnerships are increasingly important to success in the marketplace and, in this respect, we are open to further stepping up growth.”
As announced since 2018, both BMW and Daimler own 50 percent of the mobility joint venture, which is structured something like this: the on-demand segment of the market is handled by moovel (Daimler) and ReachNow (BMW), ride-sharing and taxi services are possible via Chauffeur Privé, Clever Taxi and Beat, and car sharing by car2go and DriveNow. Even parking meters are a side business for the two companies.
There are now over 20,000 vehicles operating car sharing in 31 major international cities for the two carmakers. Globally, some type of BMW-Daimler service is being offered in 1,300 cities across the world.
One of the main driving forces behind the growth is the Free Now app, whose revenues have now reached two billion euros (roughly the same amount in dollars), says BMW.
Hoping to get an equal flow of capital from the other two joint services, Share Now and Park Now & Charge Now, the two German companies announced this week the creation of an umbrella organization to govern them all. The company will begin operations on January 1, 2020.
“We are setting the course for the YOUR NOW joint ventures to achieve sustainable profitability,” said in a statement Rainer Feurer, Senior Vice President Investment of BMW Group.
“At the same time, partnerships are increasingly important to success in the marketplace and, in this respect, we are open to further stepping up growth.”
As announced since 2018, both BMW and Daimler own 50 percent of the mobility joint venture, which is structured something like this: the on-demand segment of the market is handled by moovel (Daimler) and ReachNow (BMW), ride-sharing and taxi services are possible via Chauffeur Privé, Clever Taxi and Beat, and car sharing by car2go and DriveNow. Even parking meters are a side business for the two companies.
There are now over 20,000 vehicles operating car sharing in 31 major international cities for the two carmakers. Globally, some type of BMW-Daimler service is being offered in 1,300 cities across the world.
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