Share Now

2022: Stellantis bought Share Now from BMW and Mercedes-Benz for 100 million euros

On May 3, 2022, it became known that Stellantis agreed to buy a joint Share Now car sharing service from BMW and Mercedes-Benz amid German auto giants focusing more and more attention on the software part of their technological alliance.

Stellantis, formed in 2021 as a result of the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot PSA, said it wants to become a leader in car sharing, using this acquisition to expand its existing business in this area.

Mercedes and BMW sold a joint car sharing service

We believe this deal supports our view that premium OEMs such as BMW and Mercedes will focus on the private car market and will be less involved in sharing transportation services, said Royal Bank of Canada analyst Tom Narayan.

No financial details of the transaction were provided. The Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported that the transaction cost was about €100 million ($105 million).

Having sold the division, BMW and Mercedes-Benz will focus on two other parts of their cooperation in the field of transport services: Free Now, an application that allows you to book cars, taxis, electric scooters and electric bicycles, and the Charge Now charging infrastructure booking application.

Bridget Curtehu, who heads Stellantis's Free2move transportation services division, said the deal is part of the group's plans to increase net business revenue to €700 million in 2025 and to €2.8 billion in 2030.

Stellantis said the deal will allow Free2move to add 14 large European cities and 10 thousand cars to its current fleet of 2.5 thousand cars and attract more than 3.4 million customers.

She added that the Free2 Move fleet will not 100% consist of Stellantis cars, but said that "step by step there will be more and more Stellantis cars in it."^[1]

2019: Hacking service and hijacking 100 cars

In April 2019, the Share Now car sharing application, launched by Mercedes-Benz and BMW, was hacked. As a result, attackers stole about 100 expensive cars in Chicago, some of which were later discovered at the scene of other crimes. Police arrested more than 12 suspects, reports CBS News.

A representative of Share Now said that in Chicago, the service is temporarily suspended "out of precaution." Nevertheless, Share Now refutes the version of the hacker attack - according to them, the criminals only got illegal access to cars through a mobile application.

Car sharing BMW and Mercedes hacked. 100 expensive cars stolen

The company emphasized that the problems arose only in Chicago, and the personal and confidential information of the program participants was not compromised. One way or another, in 2018, Kaspersky Lab found serious vulnerabilities in most car sharing applications that allow attackers to steal other people's accounts and sell personal data on the black market.

Share Now works with law enforcement to neutralize the problem of fraud. The police found most of the stolen cars and are searching for the rest in the vicinity of Chicago. It is possible that further investigation may reveal new cases of hijackings and lead to new arrests.

The German company Daimler, the manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars, launched the Car2Go service in 2008, and in February 2019 combined it with the DriveNow service into a single Share Now car sharing service. Its customers can rent a car in several countries in Europe, China, Canada and the USA. Mercedes-Benz and BMW plan to launch jointly not only car sharing services, but also electric vehicle charging services and other mobile services. Together, Daimler and BMW intend to invest $1.1 billion in the partnership.^[2]

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