BMW takes full ownership of DriveNow, buying Sixt's 50% stake for €209M and paving the way for potential car-sharing and driverless taxi alliance with Daimler
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's BMW has bought out partner Sixt from their joint venture DriveNow, paving the way for a broader car-sharing …
Context & Ripple Effects
BMW is untangling its ownership web before a bigger move: it had already built ReachNow in Seattle on RideCell software (a $11.7M Series A and Seattle launch), while rival Daimler consolidated taxi assets by folding Hailo into MyTaxi. Buying out Sixt gives BMW sole control of DriveNow just as the two automakers prepare to pool services.
The timing matters — weeks after this buyout, BMW and Daimler confirmed they were combining their car-sharing businesses into an equal-share joint venture to compete with Silicon Valley entrants, a structure that matured into five merged ventures including Share Now and Free Now by 2019.
First-order effects
- BMW gains unilateral control of DriveNow, so any alliance terms with Daimler no longer require Sixt's consent — Sixt exits car-sharing entirely with €209M in cash.
- Daimler gets a single negotiating counterparty instead of a two-owner venture, simplifying the merger of DriveNow with its own car2go-style operations.
Second-order effects
- A combined BMW-Daimler car-sharing bloc raises the competitive bar for standalone operators like MyTaxi, which had already consolidated through Daimler's Hailo takeover — pushing further roll-ups among European mobility apps.
- Suppliers and city partners face fewer, larger counterparties: fleet procurement and municipal car-sharing permits shift from several regional ventures to one negotiated jointly by Germany's two largest automakers.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, legacy automakers keep consolidating mobility services into shared platforms rather than running them solo — a structure that eventually makes these units tradeable assets, as shown when Lyft bought Free Now from BMW and Mercedes-Benz for €175M in 2025.
- Full ownership ahead of each alliance becomes the template: automakers first clean up cap tables, then merge, then divest — turning car-sharing from a brand experiment into portfolio management.
The trend: Legacy automakers are consolidating urban mobility services through ownership cleanups and joint ventures, positioning them as scalable — and ultimately sellable — platforms against tech entrants.