AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/03 Report--

On May 3, Stellantis Group signed an agreement to buy Share Now, a car-sharing joint venture between BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis will make the acquisition through its mobile services brand Free2Move, according to the Interface News and Financial Associated Press.

It is understood that the deal will add 14 major European cities and 10000 vehicles to Free2move's current fleet of 2500 people, with more than 3.4 million new customers. In response to the news, Free2move CEO Brigitte Courtehoux said that the acquisition is part of the Stellantis Group's 2030 plan, and the net income of the business is expected to grow to 700 million euros in 2025 and 2.8 billion euros in 2030. So far, however, the deal has yet to be approved by antitrust authorities and financial terms have not been disclosed, which Italian daily la Repubblica says is worth about 100m euros.

Data show that Share Now, founded in 2019, is a global car-sharing company jointly founded by BMW and Mercedes-Benz, then Daimler. Share Now is an important part of the joint venture between BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and the two companies plan to further develop two other joint ventures, the taxi-hailing app Free Now and the electric car charging project Charge Now.

Stellantis Group, founded in January 2021, is a carmaker and travel provider formed by the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Group (FCA) at 50:50. It owns a wide range of car brands, including Abbas, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Fiat Commercial vehicles, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, RAM, Vauxhall. At present, its product drawings are mainly concentrated in Peugeot, Citroen, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Maserati five brands. In addition, Stellantis Group has two joint ventures of DPCA and GAC Fick in the Chinese market, but the two joint ventures are not performing well in the Chinese market.

On February 23 this year, Stellantis Group announced its financial results for 2021, which showed that North America and Europe, the most important markets of Stellantis Group, contributed 29.64% and 45.58% of shipments respectively in 2021. In the financial data of net revenue and adjusted operating profit, North America ranked first and Europe ranked second. However, the two joint ventures in China did not perform well, with figures showing that Stellantis's Citroen sold 100000 vehicles in 2021, while Guangzhou Auto Fick sold only 20, 000. On the performance of the Chinese market, Tang Weishi, CEO of Stellantis Group, said: "We are very disappointed with the Chinese market."

Stellantis Group has already announced a new energy vehicle product plan, in which it plans to launch 17 plug-in hybrid models, fuel cell electric models and all-electric models in 2022 and 2023, with Peugeot and Citroen having the largest number of new cars. It is understood that Peugeot will launch four models in the future, including 308 EV, 308 SW EV/PHEV and one crossover model, while Citroen will launch three new cars, including two pure electric models and a PHEV version of the Versailles C5X. As for the market performance after the launch of the new car, it is not yet possible.

The latest data show that the cumulative wholesale sales of DPCA from January to April this year were 39632, an increase of 57.7% over the same period last year. While GAC Fick sold only 1860 vehicles from January to March this year, of which March production and sales data were abnormal. According to KuaiBao, GAC's March production and sales figures, its March production and sales were only 1, falling 99.96% and 99.97% respectively compared with the same period last year. Previously, the media learned from Jeep brand dealers that GAC Fick's March production and sales data were abnormal or related to its capacity planning adjustment. Jeep brand dealers said: "after the closure of the Guangzhou plant, domestic car production has been moved to the Changsha plant and has been suspended for several months." At present, the 4S store of Jeep brand is supported only by imported models.

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