Mercedes-Benz Mobility and BMW Group have agreed to sell their joint venture, SHARE NOW to Stellantis. The three companies recently signed an agreement but the details of the transaction have not been disclosed. It is also subject to the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities.
The sale of the car-sharing subsidiary contributes to the realignment of the companies’ mobility joint ventures: In the future, focus on two core business areas with high growth potential: digital multi-mobility, FREE NOW, and digital services related to EV charging, CHARGE NOW.
Gero Götzenberger, Director of Strategy and Investments at Mercedes-Benz Mobility: “We are proud to have founded the free-floating car sharing segment with car2go. Although Mercedes-Benz will focus more strongly on its core business in the luxury segment, car sharing will remain an important part of urban mobility and an essential element in the mobility offer at FREE NOW. With FREE NOW and CHARGE NOW, we are focusing on two growth segments that will continue to offer our customers the entire range of mobility services in the future and support the expansion of electric mobility.”
Rainer Feurer, Head of Corporate Investments at the BMW Group, adds: “The mobility joint ventures have been pioneers in Europe – FREE NOW and CHARGE NOW have been very successful in building a software platform for as many players as possible in their respective segments. With the apps of FREE NOW and CHARGE NOW, we want to provide our customers with a comprehensive and wide range of digital services. The new orientation enables us to scale our activities faster and thus to achieve further profitable growth in the shortest possible time.”
FREE NOW is a pioneer of multimodal mobility with its digital Mobility-as-a-Service platform. Today the company offers access to almost 180,000 vehicles in over 150 cities in the FREE NOW app through its partner network. With one click users can reach the largest selection of vehicles in Europe, from e-scooters to e-bikes, e-mopeds and car sharing to taxis and chauffeured vehicles.
The increasing integration of public transport and the implementation of a mobility budget last year demonstrate the aimed growth perspective of the multimodal mobility app.
In 2021, FREE NOW recorded strong growth figures in the multimodal sector – i.e. e-scooters, e-bikes, e-mopeds and car sharing – and was able to almost triple the number of transactions compared to 2020, despite the pandemic.
This year, FREE NOW is further expanding its multi-mobility offering – also in the field of car sharing: The vehicles of SIXT share, Miles and SHARE NOW can be booked via the app. A total of ten new mobility partners will be integrated on the platform in 2022, creating further mobility options for the current 56.8 million users.
In the first quarter of this year, FREE NOW’s transactions grew by a total of 31.4% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, showing a strong growth trend.
The Digital Charging Solutions GmbH (DCS), which is behind the CHARGE NOW brand, brings together drivers of electric vehicles and charging station operators in 31 European countries. The market leader offers digital services as white label solutions, ranging from comprehensive access to the charging infrastructure of currently more than 300,000 charging points in Europe to complete billing.
The DCS currently covers more than 85% of Europe’s charging services – making it the leading EV charging service in Europe. With CHARGE NOW for Business, DCS also offers the leading software for the management of EV fleets. The company is benefiting from the increasing demand for electric mobility.
In the first three months of the year, mobility joint ventures have consistently developed their products and involved other partners. At 42.3 million, transactions were almost 30% higher than in the prior-year quarter (32.6 million).
Expansion of SHARE NOW into the leading car sharing provider in Europe
SHARE NOW was established in 2019 through a merger of car2go, which was developed by the former Daimler AG, and BMW Group’s DriveNow. BMW and Mercedes co-developed SHARE NOW into the mobility market leader in Europe.
With the acquisition of SHARE NOW, Stellantis’ mobility subsidiary, Free2move has the opportunity to further expand car sharing in Europe.
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