Combining programs such as car2go and moovel into one company enables us to offer customers attractive and connected mobility services from a single source.

—Robert Henrich, former head of car2go and now Managing Director of Daimler Mobility Services GmbH

Daimler cites estimates that the number of carsharing customers in Europe alone could increase from roughly 700,000 today to nearly 15 million by 2020.

Especially urban customers demand new and flexible mobility solutions – and we want to offer these services to them accordingly. We want to be the first choice provider of innovative mobility services. In view of the enormous market potential for innovative mobility services, our goal is to break the 100 million euro mark for revenue within the next 24 months.

—DFS CEO Klaus Entenmann

car2go. Daimler’s car2go mobility concept has transformed the Group into the world’s leading provider of flexible carsharing models. The concept’s use of technology makes it possible to rent car2go vehicles on the spur of the moment and later park them at any location within the area served by the system. The concept had already become profitable at various locations by the end of 2012, which was much sooner than expected.

By the end of 2011, around 60,000 customers have registered with car2go; since then this figure has risen to 275,000. The number of car2go customers is expected to exceed half a million by the end of this year. car2go is available in six cities in Germany, and has more than 100,000 customers there—the largest number of registered users in the country’s segment for flexible carsharing services, according to Daimler.

car2go is now being offered in 18 cities around the world and will expand its service to additional cities throughout the course of this year. The number of available car2go vehicles will also increase from 6,100 to more than 10,000 by the end of 2013.

moovel. The mobility platform moovel—the second mobility concept to be developed and tested by Business Innovation after car2go—bundles the offers of diverse mobility providers and presents suitable travel options via mobile app and mobile website—irrespective of provider and transparently.

Under test in pilot projects in Stuttgart and Berlin since 2012, moovel will be launched in numerous additional cities in 2013. With the smartphone app, customers can easily and conveniently compare mobility options such as car2go, taxis, ridesharing services, and local public transport in terms of various parameters, e.g. trip duration and costs.

In the future, moovel customers will be able to find their preferred mobility option with the app and make all the necessary reservations and payments in a one-stop shopping system.

Intelligent parking. Along with the expansion of car2go and moovel, Daimler Mobility Services GmbH is also working on other solutions for simplifying mobility and providing more flexible solutions.

We believe there’s great potential for intelligent parking solutions in urban areas. New technologies are now available that can make parking space searches and reservations much easier. Here as well, we want to support our customers to the greatest extent possible with innovative solutions for intelligent, cross-linked mobility.

—Robert Henrich

As part of its effort to achieve this goal, Daimler acquired a financial interest in GottaPark Inc., which is headquartered in San Francisco, at the end of December 2012. GottaPark customers can already reserve parking spaces online from a pool of more than 300,000 parking spots in eight US cities (San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Denver, Houston, Boston, Chicago, and Miami), as well as in Vancouver, Canada. Since 2007 GottaPark has been working to make parking in cities easier. Daimler’s minority interest in the company also includes plans for strategic cooperation projects. An initial pilot project is scheduled to be launched in Europe in 2013.

Commercial fleets. DMS wants to expand the car2go concept for fully automated rentals to include the commercial fleet management sector, said Henrich. Carsharing for company vehicle fleets helps both the respective firms and their employees because it increases fleet capacity utilization and enables employees to also privately use available cars from the pool at a relatively low cost in the evening or on weekends. A respective pilot project will be launched this year.

Other holdings and partnerships. Daimler also has a stake in various other mobility service providers besides those mentioned above. For example, the Group has a financial interest in the company that provides the myTaxi smartphone app, as well as in carpooling.com, whose mitfahrgelegenheit.de portal in Germany is the market leader in the ridesharing segment. In addition, Daimler has an interest in tiramizoo—a platform for urban courier services. Within the framework of car2go, the Group also cooperates with the rental company Europcar, local governments, and numerous public transport companies.