Stellantis NV will acquire the Share Now car-sharing joint venture formed by BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, a move aimed at tapping new revenue streams.
The company said Tuesday its Free2Move mobility service brand would acquire Share Now, without naming a price. Share Now, the European market leader, allows customers to use smartphones for short-term rentals of cars including Minis or Mercedes-Benz A-Class vehicles in cities.
The sale marks another step in reshaping mobility offerings for BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz AG. The pair combined their respective services in 2018 to take on providers like Uber Technologies Inc. and save costs.
Free2Move offers app-based parking, leasing and rental services to its around 2 million customers. Share Now provides so-called free-floating car sharing services in 16 European cities and has around 3.4 million customers.
Over the next decade, Stellantis intends to expand Free2move’s presence worldwide, growing it to 15 million active users and achieve net revenues of 2.8 billion euros ($2.94 billion).
The targets come a little over a year after the mega-merger between Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group to form a sprawling manufacturer across 14 brands with nameplates like Jeep, Ram and Fiat to add scale in the EV and autonomous driving shift.
The plan forms part of a goal to maintain double-digit returns through the end of the decade by cutting costs and deriving extra revenue from new services as the automaker shifts toward electric vehicles.
