BMW Group and Daimler AG agree to combine mobility services

·       Automotive pioneers and innovation leaders to shape
sustainable urban mobility of the future

·       Strong alliance to create unique customer offering: seamless,
multimodal, fast and readily available

·       Ecosystem for on-demand mobility: single source for
CarSharing, Ride-Hailing, Parking, Charging and Multimodality

·       Sustainable solutions for challenges of urban mobility and
better quality of life in big cities

·       Joint-venture concept will ensure expansion of digital
business models at both companies

 

Munich/Stuttgart. The BMW Group and Daimler AG are
joining forces to offer customers a single source for sustainable
urban mobility services. The two companies today signed an agreement
to merge their mobility services business units. 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. Each company will
hold a 50-percent stake in a joint-venture model comprising both
companies’ mobility services. The two companies will remain
competitors in their respective core businesses.

 

The aim of this transaction is to become a leading provider of
innovative mobility services. Both automotive manufacturers aim to
shape the mobility of the future to be able to offer their customers
unique experiences and support their partners, such as cities and
communes, in achieving sustainable urban mobility.

 

The partners intend to offer their customers a holistic ecosystem of
intelligent, seamlessly connected mobility services, available at the
tap of a finger. Together, the BMW Group and Daimler AG plan to grow
this new business model sustainably and enable rapid global scaling of
services. Working as partners, both companies are thereby addressing
the challenges arising from urban mobility and changing customer
wishes, and cooperating with cities, municipalities and other interest
groups to improve quality of life in major cities. The merger will
promote electromobility, for example, by offering electrified
CarSharing vehicles, as well as easy access to charging and parking
options. As a result, it will become even easier to experience and use
sustainable mobility services.  

 

“The BMW Group is shaping future mobility – and striking out in new
directions to do so. Our Strategy NUMBER ONE NEXT provides the
BMW Group with a roadmap to a digital and emission-free future,” said
Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management
of BMW AG. “Combining our mobility services as planned will create a
unique digital ecosystem. This alliance will make it easier for our
customers to discover the emission-free mobility of the future. We
remain competitors when it comes to the best premium vehicles. The
planned merger of our mobility services will pool our resources and
sends a strong signal to our new competitors,” added Krüger.

 

“As pioneers in automotive engineering, we will not leave the task of
shaping future urban mobility to others. There will be more people
than ever before without a car who will still want to be extremely
mobile. We want to combine our expertise and experience to develop a
unique, sustainable ecosystem for urban mobility,” said Dieter
Zetsche
, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG
and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. “At Daimler, we are vigorously and
systematically pursuing our transformation from automobile
manufacturer to provider of mobility services with our CASE strategy.
CASE stands for connectivity, automated driving, sharing
services and electric mobility.”

 

“The future of mobility lies in cities: The key to more liveable
cities is in intelligent and seamless services that are easy to use
and combine sustainable modes of transport and mobility services,”
said Peter Schwarzenbauer, member of the Board of
Management of BMW AG, responsible for MINI, Rolls-Royce, BMW Motorrad,
Customer Engagement and Digital Business Innovation BMW Group. “The
pioneering work and commitment of the employees who provide our
services have laid a valuable foundation. I would like to thank them
very much indeed for all that they have done,” Schwarzenbauer continued.

 

“The sustainable mobility of tomorrow is flexible and connected – a
vision we share with our partner, the BMW Group,” explained
Bodo Uebber, member of the Board of Management of
Daimler AG, responsible for Finance Controlling and Daimler
Financial Services. “Together, we can offer millions of customers
highly-attractive products and services to make their lives easier and
their environment a better place to live. The options offered by the
planned joint venture-concept will complement mobility services
offered by cities.”

The equally-owned joint venture model is designed to combine services
in the following five areas:

 

1)    Multimodal and on-demand mobility
with moovel and ReachNow: Intelligent and seamless
connectivity between different mobility offerings – including booking
and payment – will create significant added value for users. It will
also offer possible solutions for the challenges of urban private transport.

 

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:

With Europe’s largest taxi app, simply order a taxi or use a licensed
driver in France for a ride in the French metropolises. In total, 13
million customers and some 140,000 drivers are already using the
modern, practical and fast way of Ride-Hailing with mytaxi, Clever
Taxi and Beat or private hire vehicle service Chauffeur Privé.
Innovative offers such as mytaximatch, in which people not known to
each other share a taxi at a fingertip, make an important contribution
to reducing inner-city traffic by eliminating numerous individual
trips in the urban space.

 

4)    Parking with ParkNow and Parkmobile
Group/Parkmobile LLC:

Ticketless, cashless on-street parking or help finding, reserving and
paying for off-street parking in a garage. Innovative digital parking
services reduce the time and the amount of driving involved in finding
a parking space. This will reduce 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 143,000
charging points worldwide. Combined with parking privileges in cities,
this will support the expansion of electromobility, by helping people
get to know this drive technology and integrate it easily into their
mobility needs.

 

The formation of the joint venture will produce a significant
valuation and earnings effect at Daimler Financial Services. If the
approval of the competition authorities is received this year,
following adjustments will be made to the group outlook for Daimler
AG: The company expects EBIT for Daimler Financial Services to be
significantly higher than the previous year; for the Group as a whole,
this means EBIT is likely to be slightly higher than the previous year.

 

If approved by the relevant authorities in the course of this year,
the formation of the joint venture will trigger a one-time valuation
and earnings effect in the BMW AG’s group financial statement and thus
lead to an adjustment of the company’s guidance: Under these
circumstances, pre-tax earnings on Group level would increase slightly
in 2018 compared with the previous year. The valuation and earnings
effect would have no impact on the EBIT margin in the automotive segment.

 

The joint project is subject to examination and approval by the
respective competition authorities. The best-possible customer
experience is already the focus of both partners’ services. Therefore,
initially nothing will change for the millions of customers, with
existing services still being provided to the same extent and with the
same level of quality.

 

BMW Group

Glenn Schmidt

Head of Business and Finance Communications

Telephone: +49 89 382-24544

glenn.schmidt@bmwgroup.com

BMW Group

Max-Morten Borgmann

Business and Finance Communications

Telephone: +49 89 382-24118

max-morten.borgmann@bmwgroup.com

 

Daimler AG

Corporate Communications

Hendrik Sackmann

Telephone: +49 711 17-35014

hendrik.sackmann@daimler.com

 

Daimler AG

Corporate Communications

Silke Walters

Telephone: 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.