Lead
Introduction
Stellantis' acquisition of its car-sharing brand Share Now from Mercedes-Benz and BMW may be a good thing for every company.
Author 丨 Deng Yongtuo
Responsible editor 丨 Xu Jinkai
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
Recently, Stellantis Group announced that its car sharing brand Free2move has signed a relevant agreement to acquire the car sharing company Share Now. This will expand Stellantis' presence in the European car-sharing space.
The completion of the acquisition agreement will allow Free2move to add more than 10,000 new vehicles to its current scale of 2,500 shared cars and will cover 14 major European cities, further strengthening Free2move's position as a global leader in mobility services.
Founded in 2019, Share Now is a new car-sharing fleet formed by the merger of two original car-sharing brands, Car2go and DriveNow, jointly created by Mercedes-Benz Mobility and bmw group, with the intention of expanding its influence in the car-sharing field in Europe through a strong alliance.
Today, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have agreed to sell the Share Now car-sharing brand, a combination of double Bs, with the intention of creating a focus on two central business areas with high growth potential, providing customers with a full range of digital multiple mobility methods Free now and a digital service related to electric vehicle charging, Charge Now.
Domestic short-lived car2go
In 2016, after nearly eight years of operation in the European and American markets, Mercedes-Benz mobility brand Car2go chose to associate itself with the "mountain city" of Chongqing. This not only marks the official landing of the German luxury car company's new way of travel in the Chinese market, But also Chongqing has become the first pilot city of car2go in Asia, which also has a Chinese name "instant".
For this kind of time-sharing car rental travel mode of free-use and self-service pick-up, many people are full of curiosity. Within two months of its initial operation in Chongqing, more than 78,000 people had registered as instant car2go members, and the first 400 smart fortwo vehicles launched in Chongqing had been leased more than 40,000 times, with an average of one being rented out every 1.7 minutes. In Chongqing, the car2go also has a rather dialectic nickname, "Ka Er Dog", which shows the love of Chongqing people at that time.
However, as service costs continue to rise and fewer vehicles are operated, there are some implications for the consumer experience. As a new way to get around, I also experienced a ready-to-go car2go in 2018. In a city with tight parking spaces like Chongqing, you can only park in a specific area of the designated type of parking space, and you often need to spend a lot of time to "grab the parking space" when returning the car, and the cost is not too much different from the taxi, and the experience is not very good.
It can be said that the i.e. car2go opens the door to the new market of timeshare leasing. After this, many local enterprises began to "attack", as a time-sharing leasing enterprises have seized the highlands, There are 5-6 platforms on the line in Chongqing. Although car2go is also trying to expand its business to cities such as Xi'an, Nanjing, Wuhan and Chengdu, it is still difficult to achieve corporate profitability.
In 2019, i.e. car2go officially ended its car time-sharing operations in China on June 30. In the face of the impact of many domestic rivals, in just three years, the mobility service brand with the world's largest car-sharing fleet at that time withdrew from the Chinese market.
New revenue outside of cars
Looking back, Mercedes-Benz chose to enter the field of mobility services, the main goal is to make money. Because in the car sharing market, it is indeed an area that passenger car companies are targeting. Not only can we seek new revenue in addition to selling cars, but we can also digest the production inventory of the brand. Once the market matures, it only needs to pay a small amount of operating and maintenance costs to make it work. As a result, it has gradually become another important "export place" for passenger car companies.
Today, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have chosen to sell their joint venture in the field of mobility services, Share Now, probably mainly because it is not so "profitable". Prior to this, Due to changes in the travel landscape and rising operating costs, Share Now had ended its operations in the North American market in March two years ago.
On the contrary, the Stellantis Group currently has broad prospects for development in the field of mobility services. Its car-sharing brand Free2move has accelerated car-sharing services in the United States, and now offers services in several U.S. cities, including Washington, Portland, Denver and Austin, as well as in Paris and Madrid. The acquisition will allow Free2move to expand into 14 major European cities, including Germany, Italy and Denmark.
"This acquisition accelerates our profit growth. We are now one step closer to achieving our goal of expanding Free2move's global reach of 15 million by 2030," said Brigitte Courtehoux, CEO of Free2move. She said the deal is part of the Stellantis Group's plan to increase Free2move's net income to €700 million by 2025 and €2.8 billion by 2030.
Free2move also recently announced the acquisition of Opel's rental services company, accelerating its growth in Germany and Austria, and integrating Opel's service locations into its mobility service system. Free2move said the fleet will not become 100% Stellantis brand cars, but will have more Stellantis step by step, which will help provide more new models to the market for both PSA and FCA.
On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz and BMW will also benefit from the acquisition process, and the sale of Share Now will help the joint venture between the two giants to make strategic adjustments. In the future, it will focus on Free Now and Charge Now, two business areas with high growth potential.
With its digital services, Free Now is a pioneer in a multi-vehicle intermodal service platform. With just one click, users can access Europe's largest mobility service, from electric scooters to e-bikes, from e-bikes and car-sharing to taxis and ride-hailing. Free Now offers nearly 180,000 vehicles in more than 150 cities in its software, satisfying customers with the freedom to choose the best way to get around through the app.
Last year, Free Now showed strong growth in the multimodal sector thanks to the integration of public transport, with the number of transactions almost tripled compared to the previous year, despite the impact of the pandemic. This year, Free Now is further expanding its mobile offerings and will integrate 10 new mobile service partners to create more service options for its current 56.8 million subscribers.
In contrast, Charge Now's development prospects are even more impressive, and its driving force, DCS, brings together electric vehicle charging station operators in 31 European countries, currently covers more than 85% of Europe's charging services, and operates and manages more than 300,000 charging stations in Europe, more than any other supplier. With Charge Now for Business, DCS also provides leading software services for managing fleets of electric vehicles and is benefiting from the growing demand for electric vehicles.
For the Share Now acquisition contract, the signatories agreed not to mention the specific financial terms for the time being, according to the Financial Times, the price may exceed 100 million euros. Clearly, the acquisition will be beneficial for both Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and will perpetuate their vision of generating significant revenue outside of selling cars.
| Deng Yongtuo |
Not a big problem, there is no fear of cars.