BMW or Mercedes? For many car enthusiasts, this is a question of faith, similar to Rolling Stones or Beatles and Cola or Pepsi. This division also seemed to continue in car-sharing. Car2go is name of Daimler’s subsidiary in this area, where customer can drive Mercedes models and smarts. BMWs car sharing concept is called DriveNow, here sharers get for example new BMW i3 or Mini put. The two major German car manufacturers also competed with rented cars.
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All over: Soon Car2go and DriveNow are to become one, auto companies want to merge ir car-sharing offers. For months re has been speculation, now Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has announced that it is almost as far away. The two brands will probably continue to exist, but infrastructure behind m is combined. The car rental company Sixt, previously co-owner of DriveNow, should be willing to sell his shares in Mercedes. Is re a monopoly on car-sharing market?
Flinkster is place deer – with a different concept
So far, it doesn’t look like it. Car2go and DriveNow put toger about 7,200 of distributable cars in country, altoger re are over 17,000. The new company would be great, but would not be able to control market for a long time. Especially because ir offer is mainly restricted to large cities: Car2go is active in six places, DriveNow in five. For comparison: Flinkster, car-sharing subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, is represented in over 400 cities.
However, new BMW-Daimler cooperation would dominate a sub-brand of practising. There are two rental models: Station-based offers where customer picks up car from a fixed point and brings it back re. Flinkster relies on this model. and free floating, where you can go with cars, where y are standing and you will be able to leave m somewhere later. If you start and stop in business area of provider, usually within city limits. In free floating, merged company would be overpowering.
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And this is more promising model, says Peter Foothold, automotive expert at business consultancy EY. “I no longer need stations in a fully functioning car-sharing market,” he says. “That would be a bit like car rental stations that have been around for a long time.” In free floating, Car2go and DriveNow with ir models represent about 90 percent of offer, 7,200 of about 7,800 vehicles. You would definitely be able to control this segment in a merger.
The providers mselves do not comment on alleged merger plans. The extent to which this business has lasted profit remains unclear. DriveNow is expected to be profitable since 2014, Car2go is also profitable in some cities according to its own specifications. However, experts doubt that profits are huge.
Gunnar Nehrke from Federal Association for Car Sharing (BCS) still suspects reasons elsewhere. “Free floating is relatively expensive,” he says. After all, cars are distributed all over city, if necessary from suburbs to be brought back to centre. Besides, you have to be on road with many vehicles from very beginning, so you can guarantee customer that you will always find a car nearby. “From point of view of providers, such a merger would make sense”, says Nehrke. Also, because many car-sharing customers already use several providers, so if necessary Car2go and DriveNow parallel.
Daimler also relies on or projects
Also, Peter’s foot holds mergers on Carsharingmarkt for reasonable. “Especially in new markets, one plus one sometimes yields 3,” he says. The offer of a supplier is rising abruptly, which means that he can win many customers in a very early stage. If y can access both fleets of Car2go and DriveNow, chance is higher that re is actually a car nearby. Wher all of this will work through an app, companies still remain silent.
Therefore, one can only speculate what merger means for customers. “I would like to point out that re are no price increases,” says Nehrke from car-sharing association BCS. Free floating is already more expensive today than station-related competition. There’s not much room for manoeuvre. The danger is too great that customers are being driven to station-linked competition. In spite of different models, this after observation of BCS is still competition for free floaters. “The market is still too young for price increases,” she agrees.
Because re are or alternatives. Although internationally successful carpooling apps such as Uber and Lyft are only permitted in Germany, too often decided courts that ir offers are not compatible with German law. The potential for a different concept is greater: so-called peer-to-peer car-sharing, i.e. between private people. This works much like popular accommodation agency Airbnb: People make ir cars available when y don’t need m. Ors can use m for a fixed period of time. In Germany, among ors, Drivy, Snappcar and newest American company Turo have been active. The Daimler Group is also involved in this. Anor sign that major German brands are expanding and in future want to be more mobility service providers than pure car manufacturers.
