Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz is restructuring its financial services unit in order to better accommodate the rise of mobility services, the company announced in a press release.
Daimler Financial Services AG will be renamed Daimler Mobility AG in the first half of 2019 and its 13,000 employees will be tasked with managing services such as Car2go, Moovel, and Mytaxi, which have amassed 23.5 million customers worldwide.
The company’s other business entities including Mercedes-Benz Bank in Europe, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services in the U.S., and Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance China — among others — will remain unchanged as they continue to service those brands.
During the second quarter, Daimler Financial grew originations 2% year over year to 501,000 new leasing and financing contracts for a total volume of $21.3 billion. Daimler’s mobility portfolio included more than 5 million vehicles at the end of June, which is equivalent to $170.9 billion.
All of that volume is also prior to a planned joint venture with BMW’s mobility unit that was announced in March and is still pending approval.
“We finance mobility, we insure mobility and with the new name, we are also making a strong statement with respect to the future of mobility,” said Bodo Uebber, a member of Daimler AG’s board of management responsible for Finance & Controlling and Daimler Financial Services. “Financial services remain a fundamental element of our business division.”
This week, Daimler Financial’s Car2go service launched a fleet of 400 Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Chicago for residents to rent off the streets via an app. There’s no registration fee and fuel, parking, insurance, and maintenance are all included in the pricing, which is based on time used and miles driven.
“Carsharing continues to gain momentum worldwide as more people move into dense urban cores and seek simple, on-demand, eco-friendly solutions for making short- or long-term trips,” said Olivier Reppert, chief executive of the car2go Group GmbH. “Chicago is a perfect match for a mobility service like ours, and the support we have received from city leaders to bring car2go to Chicago has been outstanding.”
The change won’t be set until shareholders vote on the new structure at the Annual General Meeting on May 22, 2019. The changes also include structural changes to the company’s car and van service as well as Daimler Truck AG.
