BMW, Daimler promise $1.1B in 'urban mobility' joint ventures to take on Uber

The cooperation will include five separate joint ventures in segments ranging from EV charging to ride sharing.

BMW and Daimler have announced a new collaborative partnership that extends to five different 'urban mobility' businesses.

The companies plan to spend $1.13 billion USD on the joint ventures: Reach Now for multimodal services, Charge Now for EV charging, Free Now for taxi ride hailing, Park Now for parking and Share Now for car sharing.

"We have a clear vision: these five services will merge ever more closely to form a single mobility service portfolio with an all-electric, self-driving fleet of vehicles that charge and park autonomously and interconnect with the other modes of transport," says BMW chief Harald Krueger.

The companies claim to have 60 million active customers already, though their current startup businesses in the respective 'mobility' segments presumably have far fewer users than established players such as Uber.