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BMW-Daimler Mobility Joint Venture Gets U.S. Regulatory Approval

The unlikely alliance between German auto giants BMW and Daimler in the field of mobility is moving forward at an accelerated pace, putting the new joint venture on track for an early 2019 start of operations.
These are the companies to be jointly run by Daimler and BMW 1 photo
Photo: BMW
On Tuesday, the two companies got the green light from U.S. competition authorities, meaning all antitrust bodies found no issue with the creation and operation of the gigantic car sharing entity.

According to BMW, now that the path is clear the deal should officially be closed by the end of January 2019. Then, in the first quarter of the year, the next steps in the creation of the yet unnamed behemoth will be announced.

The new company will pool the combined efforts of BMW and Daimler in the fields of car sharing, ride-hailing, parking, charging and multimodality, but not car manufacturing.

Both BMW and Daimler would own 50 percent of the new joint venture which will be headquartered in Germany’s capital, Berlin.

The new group eyes car sharing operations in 31 major international cities, powered by a total of 20,000 vehicles. Taxi services will unite the might of mytaxi, Chauffeur Privé, Clever Taxi, and Beat, while electric vehicle charging will be taken care of by ChargeNow and Digital Charging Solutions via 143,000 charging points worldwide.

Also, parking meters across the world will be operated jointly by the two, virtually squeezing every dime from all offshoots of the automotive industry.

Multimodality, meaning the connectivity between different mobility offerings, will also be targeted by the group.

“Both automobile manufacturers want to shape the future of mobility in order to offer their customers unique experiences and to support partners such as cities and municipalities along the way to achieving sustainable urban mobility,” said Daimler in a statement at the beginning of the month.

“In this way, the two partners are addressing the challenges of urban mobility as well as customers’ requirements and, together with cities, municipalities and other interest groups, are helping to improve the quality of life in metropolises."
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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