Despite Daimler AG and BMW Group’s $1.1 billion investment in a mobility and ride-hailing joint venture, the companies’ captives will continue to operate as competitors.
“The core business with vehicles will remain unaffected, and the competition in the premium market will be maintained,” Daimler Financial Services spokesman James Ryan told Auto Finance News. “This also holds true for automotive financing.”
Yet, J.D. Power Senior Director of Automotive Finance Jim Houston predicted that collaboration between BMW Financial Services and Daimler Financial is inevitable.
“At some point in time, the companies will collectively benchmark each other with prearranged discussion as to how they are going to finance these vehicles,” Houston said. Granted, those discussions and potential collaboration will likely take several years, he added.
For now, the joint venture is “one more domino falling in what we see as furthering the trend in OEMs teaming up to address major market changes with mobility,” said Jeremy Acevedo, manager of industry analysis at Edmunds.
“Ride-hailing and the availability of vehicle-sharing is a huge step toward this autonomous future OEMs envision,” Acevedo said, noting that it makes sense for OEMs to begin acclimating consumers to the concept of alternate ownership options.
“Even as these automakers are teaming up to have these atypical car-driving experiences that don’t have financing, it’s clear from this messaging that financing is still very far away and it’s going to take the [captive] finance arms quite a bit of time to finance and invest in this,” Acevedo said.
As for future investments in innovation, Daimler is looking to implement a growth strategy with new products, advanced technologies, and modern production capabilities, Ryan said, adding that Daimler will continue its “innovation offensive with vigor in the coming years.”
Daimler plans to invest $17 billion in property, plant, and equipment initiatives, and more than $20 billion in research and development projects through 2020, he said.
For more content like this, check out our upcoming event Auto Finance Accelerate, May 13-16 at the Omni San Diego. Visit www.AutoFinanceAccelerate.com to register.
