BMW, Daimler Car-Sharing Venture to Exit US, Focus on Europe Instead

   By Max Bernhard 
 

Share Now, the car-sharing venture owned by BMW AG (BMW.XE) and Daimler AG (DAI.XE), is exiting the U.S. and Canadian markets due to competition, lack of infrastructure and rising operating costs.

The company will focus on cities in Europe in the future but it is also ceasing operations in London, Brussels and Florence because of low adoption rates, it said late Wednesday on its website. The changes are effective Feb. 29.

The decision to exit North America was due to the "volatile state of the global mobility landscape," and "rising infrastructure complexities facing North American transportation today--such as a rapidly evolving competitive mobility landscape, the lack of necessary infrastructure to support new technology (including electric-vehicle car share) and rising operating costs," it said.

Daimler and BMW decided to join forces last year to better be able to compete with tech giants such as Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) and China's Didi Chuxing Technology Co.

"With Daimler's free cash flow under pressure from a number of challenges in 2020 we believe it is highly rational that the new management team are exiting investments with uncertain level of future returns," Citi's Angus Tweedie said.

Share Now said it will now focus on the remaining 18 European cities in which it operates.

Write to Max Bernhard at [e-mail]; @mxbernhard

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 19, 2019 04:26 ET (09:26 GMT)

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