BMW seeking additional partners for its mobility joint-venture
In an interview for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, BMW’s newly appointed CEO Oliver Zipse expressed his full openness to attract new partners and collaborators in the mobility services venture.
Back in late February 2019, BMW Group and Daimler AG were announcing their official cooperation in the field of mobility services. The partnership includes five joint ventures addressing the areas of charging facilities, parking, urban mobility and ride sharing. Afterwards, under the helm of former CEO Harald Krueger, BMW further extended its cooperation with Daimler to develop future technologies for automated driving.
Speaking of BMW mobility services, Oliver Zipse quoted his expansion intentions: “We would like to welcome additional partners in this area, which has great future potential,” he said in the interview to the German newspaper. A further expansion of collaboration with new partners would mean a reduction in costs and great opportunity which every involved party would make a substantial profit amount from.
Currently, the two rivals, BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler AG each own an equal 50% stake of the mobility joint venture entities CHARGE NOW, PARK NOW, FREE NOW, SHARE NOW and REACH NOW. The ultimate aim is to either build a stronger market position or maintain the current one.
It is no secret that since it lost the crown back in 2016, BMW wants to regain the premium laurels and become once again the leader of the segment. In the last month, there has been a major rehaul in the brand’s portfolio of models and that sustained renewal of the fleet will continue further in the coming years, building the foundations for a solid growth in the future.
Out of the many, one possible partner in this business could be very unexpected, but as well fairly reasonable. Volkswagen has invested a lot of its budget into redefining mobility in the last years. Apart from the 100% electric model offensive that started with the ID.3, the Wolfsburg-based conglomerate has also been highly active in the field mobility-related companies. MOIA, established back in December 2016, is a sub-brand of Volkswagen which is aimed at offering alternative solutions and intelligent services for redefining urban mobility.
A possible BMW – Daimler – Volkswagen joint venture would definitely be a big cooperation. Would it eventually work, if it’s destined to be?
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