BMW Group and Daimler AG plan to headquarter joint mobility company in Berlin

Stuttgart/Munich. The BMW Group and Daimler AG plan to locate the headquarters of their proposed global mobility company in Berlin. The two partners are purposely seeking to establish this innovative mobility services provider outside of their respective Group structures in the dynamic environment of Germany’s capital city. At the same time, the globally positioned joint venture will maintain its international presence as a success factor.

“Our vision is to create a major global player for seamless and intelligent connected mobility services together. As a hub for creativity and innovation, Berlin is exactly the right location for our plans,” according to Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

“The future of mobility is being shaped in major cities like Berlin. With the ecosystem we are planning, we will create solutions for tomorrow's urban mobility: intelligent, seamlessly connected and available at the tap of a finger. We believe this will improve quality of life in major cities,” explained Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.

Together, the BMW Group and Daimler AG aim to grow this new business model sustainably to enable rapid global scaling of services. The two companies took a further step towards forming their joint venture by officially filing the transaction with the European Commission. Both automotive manufacturers aim to shape the mobility of the future, so they can offer customers unique experiences and support their partners, such as cities, in achieving sustainable urban mobility. In filing the application with the European Union, the partners are now addressing the joint venture’s most important market. The transaction has already been filed with the responsible authorities in a number of different countries and, in some cases, has already been approved.

The BMW Group and Daimler AG announced plans to join forces and offer customers a single source for sustainable urban mobility services in March 2018. By combining these growth areas, the two partners are underlining their ambitions in this future market. The BMW Group and Daimler AG intend to offer their customers a holistic ecosystem of intelligent, seamlessly connected mobility services, available at the tap of a finger.

Subject to examination and approval by the responsible competition authorities, the BMW Group and Daimler AG plan to combine and strategically expand their existing on-demand mobility offering in the areas of CarSharing, Ride-Hailing, Parking, Charging and Multimodality. The two companies will each hold a 50-percent stake in the joint venture, but will remain competitors in their respective core businesses.

The equally-owned joint venture will comprise services in the following areas:

1) Multimodal and On-Demand Mobility with moovel and ReachNow: In total more than 5 million users will benefit from intelligent and seamless connectivity between different mobility offerings – including booking and payment. The multimodal platform will also offer possible solutions for the challenges of urban private transport, including providing car as a service.

2) CarSharing with Car2Go and DriveNow: Car2Go and DriveNow operate a total of 20,000 vehicles in 31 major international cities. CarSharing enables better utilisation of vehicles and thus helps reduce the total number of vehicles in cities. More than four million customers already use these CarSharing services.

3) Ride-Hailing with mytaxi, Chauffeur Privé, Clever Taxi and Beat: 15.9 million passengers and more than 170,000 drivers are already using the services of mytaxi, Chauffeur Privé, Clever Taxi (all Europe) and Beat (South America). This makes Intelligent Apps one of the leading ride hailing service providers in both Europe and South America. Innovative products like mytaximatch, which allows you to share your taxi rides and costs with other passengers through a fingertip in the app, significantly contribute to reduce urban traffic problems.

4) Parking with ParkNow and Parkmobile Group/Parkmobile LLC: Ticketless, cashless on-street parking or help reserving and paying for off-street parking in a garage: Parkmobile already reaches a total of more than 25 million customers in Europe and North America and offers digital parking solutions in over 1,000 cities. Innovative digital parking services reduce the time and amount of driving involved in finding a parking space. This reduces traffic significantly, as cars searching for parking spaces currently account for around 30% of road traffic.

5) Charging with ChargeNow and Digital Charging Solutions: Easy access (incl. location, charging and payment) to the world’s largest network of public charging stations with more than 192,000 charging points worldwide. Combined with parking privileges in cities, this will support the expansion of electromobility, by helping people integrate this drive technology more easily into their mobility needs.

BMW Group

Glenn Schmidt
Head of Business and Finance Communications
Tel.: +49 89 328-24544
glenn.schmidt@bmwgroup.com

Max-Morten Borgmann
Business and Finance Communications
Tel.: ++49 89 382-24118
max-morten.borgmann@bmwgroup.com

Daimler AG -  Corporate Communications

Hendrik Sackmann
Tel.: + 49 711 17-35014
hendrik.sackmann@daimler.com

Silke Walters
Tel.: +49 711 17-40624
silke.walters@daimler.com

This document contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current views about future events. The words “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “can,” “could,” “plan,” “project,” “should” and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties, including an adverse development of global economic conditions, in particular a decline of demand in our most important markets; a deterioration of our refinancing possibilities on the credit and financial markets; events of force majeure including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, political unrest, armed conflicts, industrial accidents and their effects on our sales, purchasing, production or financial services activities; changes in currency exchange rates; a shift in consumer preferences towards smaller, lower-margin vehicles; a possible lack of acceptance of our products or services which limits our ability to achieve prices and adequately utilise our production capacities; price increases for fuel or raw materials; disruption of production due to shortages of materials, labour strikes or supplier insolvencies; a decline in resale prices of used vehicles; the effective implementation of cost-reduction and efficiency-optimisation measures; the business outlook for companies in which we hold a significant equity interest; the successful implementation of strategic cooperations and joint ventures; changes in laws, regulations and government policies, particularly those relating to vehicle emissions, fuel economy and safety; the resolution of pending government investigations or of investigations requested by governments and the conclusion of pending or threatened future legal proceedings; and other risks and uncertainties, some of which we describe under the heading “Risk and Opportunity Report” in the current Annual Report. If any of these risks and uncertainties materialises or if the assumptions underlying any of our forward-looking statements prove to be incorrect, the actual results may be materially different from those we express or imply by such statements. We do not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements since they are based solely on the circumstances at the date of publication.

The BMW Group
With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services. The BMW Group production network comprises 30 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries; the company has a global sales network in more than 140 countries. In 2017, the BMW Group sold over 2,463,500 passenger vehicles and more than 164,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the financial year 2017 was € 10.655 billion on revenues amounting to € 98.678 billion. As of 31 December 2017, the BMW Group had a workforce of 129,932 employees. The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. 

Daimler at a Glance
Daimler AG is one of the world’s most successful automotive companies. With its divisions Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Daimler Buses and Daimler Financial Services, the Daimler Group is one of the biggest producers of premium cars and the world’s biggest manufacturer of commercial vehicles with a global reach. Daimler Financial Services provides financing, leasing, fleet management, insurance, financial investments, credit cards, and innovative mobility services. The company’s founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, made history with the invention of the automobile in the year 1886. As a pioneer of automotive engineering, it is a motivation and commitment of Daimler to shape safely and sustainably the future of mobility: The Group’s focus is on innovative and green technologies as well as on safe and superior automobiles that appeal and fascinate. Daimler consequently invests in the development of efficient drive trains with the long-term goal of locally emission-free driving: from hightech combustion engines about hybrid vehicles to electric drive trains powered by battery or fuel cell. Furthermore, the company follows a consistent path towards intelligent connectivity of its vehicles, autonomous driving and new mobility concepts. This is just one example of how Daimler willingly accepts the challenge of meeting its responsibility towards society and the environment. Daimler sells its vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of the world and has production facilities in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa. Its current brand portfolio includes, in addition to the world’s most valuable premium automotive brand, Mercedes-Benz (Source: Interbrand-Study „The Anatomy of Growth“, 10/5/2016), as well as Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes me, the brands smart, EQ, Freightliner, Western Star, BharatBenz, FUSO, Setra and Thomas Built Buses, and Daimler Financial Services’ brands: Mercedes-Benz Bank, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Daimler Truck Financial, moovel, car2go and mytaxi. The company is listed on the stock exchanges of Frankfurt and Stuttgart (stock exchange symbol DAI). With application of IFRS 15 and IFRS 9 in financial year 2017, Group revenue would have amounted to €164.2 billion and Group EBIT would have amounted to €14.3 billion. Before application of IFRS 15 and 9, Group revenue in 2017 amounted to €164.3 billion and Group EBIT amounted to €14.7 billion, as previously reported.