The two leading German luxury carmakers unveiled plans on Wednesday to combine their businesses in new services such as car-sharing and electric vehicle charging to compete with Uber in the United States and Didi Chuxing in China.
They will each hold half of a new joint venture company which is likely to be headquartered in Germany. Daimler and BMW’s financial strength could help the venture fund takeovers but said they were also open to adding new partners.
Both firms’ car-sharing services will remain separate. The venture will benefit from managerial and operational synergies. Interestingly, further acquisitions are apparently in the works.