Daimler's Car2Go acquisition paves way for potential fusion of car-sharing platforms

BERLIN, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Daimler AG has become the sole owner of the European car-sharing platform Car2Go after acquiring the remaining 25-percent share from car rental company Europcar, the Stuttgart-based car maker announced Thursday.

Outside of Europe, Car2Go is also active in North America and China where it is already fully controlled by Daimler. The now-complete acquisition of Car2Go was widely seen by German media as paving the way to a potential fusion of Car2Go with the rival car-sharing platform DriveNow, which is owned by BMW.

Neither Daimler, nor BMW, were willing to comment on speculations about a prospective merger of their car-sharing subsidiaries on Thursday. BMW became the sole proprietor of DriveNow as recently as January, having acquired a 50-percent share from rental car company Sixt.

According to information provided by the respective companies, DriveNow has 1 million customers in Europe while Car2Go counts 3 million users of its regional services. In combination with autonomous driving technologies, car-sharing services are considered to be a significant growth market which the German automotive industry hopes to benefit from in the future. Enditem