Daimler Mobility Services will acquire the 25 percent stake in car2go Europe GmbH owned by joint venture partner Europcar Group, emphasizing its intended shift to a fully connected, autonomous, shared, and electric vehicle portfolio.
Following approval of the transaction by the relevant authorities, 100 percent of car2go Europe shares will be owned by Daimler.
In 2012, car2go Europe GmbH was created as a joint venture, owned 75 percent by Daimler and 25 percent by Europcar. Today, car2go Group is present in Europe, North America, and China, and has more than three million users worldwide.
“Over the course of the last several months, we have intensified our investments in mobility services in order to create a holistic mobility system with a broad portfolio. As part of this strategy, we decided to fully acquire the remaining shares in car2go Europe,” stated Daimler's head of mobility services, Jörg Lamparter. “We want to thank Europcar for their great support as we went from a car sharing start up to the leading car sharing company in the world.”
Daimler said in a statement that it is “poised to further expand its mobility portfolio, expand its customer base, and enhance the customer experience through bundled mobility products.” It added that, with the customer insights gained through 24 million rentals for both combustion engines and electric cars alone in 2017, car2go has laid the groundwork for Daimler's strategy to shift to “a fully connected, autonomous, shared, and electric vehicle portfolio.”
Today, “car2go has algorithms which predict mobility demand and the fleets are strategically moved to optimize maximum usage and meet demand.” The goal, Daimler added, is to develop the required expertise and resources “so that we are a leader in the future business with self-driving cars.”
“I want to thank Europcar for their collaboration in supporting car2go's expansion across Europe. We have collectively transformed car sharing from a trend to a lifestyle and have created a mobility community,” stated Olivier Reppert, the chief executive officer of car2go Group.
Caroline Parot, Europcar Group's chief executive officer, stated, “We want to thank the Daimler Group for our longstanding partnership since 2012 within car2go Europe. This investment has taught us a great deal about car sharing.”
In addition to car2go, Daimler Mobility Services is responsible for moovel and mytaxi: The mobility platform moovel offers on-demand access to various mobility offers, including booking and payment. mytaxi is a taxi hailing app in Europe. Moreover, Daimler Mobility Services holds minority stakes in Blacklane, Careem, Flixbus, Turo, and Via. Almost 18 million customers are registered with car2go, moovel and mytaxi, which are offered in more than 100 cities in Europe, North America, and China.