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BMW negotiates Daimler alliance, buys out car-service partner Sixt

Sixt sells its stake in DriveNow car-sharing to BMW BMW in talks with Daimler to combine car-sharing Combining car-sharing business to aid robotaxi plans FRANKFURT — Germany's BMW has bought out partner Sixt from their joint venture DriveNow, paving the way for a broader car-sharing and driverless taxi alliance with Daimler to compete against Uber and Lyft. Car rental company Sixt said on Monday it would generate an extraordinary pre-tax profit of about 200 million euros ($248 million) in 2018 from the sale of the DriveNow stake to BMW for 209 million euros. "With DriveNow as a wholly-owned subsidiary, we have all options for continued strategic development of our services," said Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW's board member for Digital Business Innovation. "Our experience with mobility services supports our development of future autonomous, electrified and connected fleets," he said, adding that BMW aims to have 100 million customers for "premium mobility services" by 2025. The Sixt deal comes as BMW moves closer to a deal to combine its car-sharing services with Daimler's Car2Go, a person familiar with the discussions told Reuters last week. The German carmakers want to build a joint business that includes car sharing, ride-hailing, electric vehicle charging, and digital parking services, a senior executive at one of the companies said on Monday. Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and BMW declined comment on the status of potential talks on their car-sharing business. "This is speculation, we do not comment," BMW said. The senior executive, who declined to be named because the plan is not public, said: "This will create an ecosystem which can also be used for managing robotaxi (driverless taxi) fleets." BMW would contribute its ParkNow and ChargeNow businesses to the common company, the executive said, adding that there were still differences of opinion over the valuation of Car2Go. The market for ride-hailing services currently makes up around 33 percent of the global taxi market, and could grow eightfold to $285 billion by 2030, once autonomous robotaxis are in operation, Goldman Sachs said in a recent research note. BMW and Daimler are now working on developing autonomous cars, vehicles which could enable them to up-end the market for taxi and ride-hailing services.

2019 Mercedes-Benz G-Class vs big luxury off-roaders: How they compare on paper

During our first drive of the 2019 Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the all-new SUV's product manager was asked to identify competitors that might have been benchmarked in its development. The look on his face was about the same as if someone had asked him to recite King Lear in Klingon. As far as Andreas Hoeppel was concerned, the G 550 and AMG G 63 doesn't actually have a rival, or at least something the engineers and designers thought to compare it against. The G-Class is a G-Class, who cares what the other guys are doing? Well, in case you care, we figured we'd plug the new G-Class' specs into the old Autoblog Comparo Generator 3000 (TM) to see how the G 550 and AMG G 63 compare to the Range Rover and its mightiest SVAutobiography Dynamic model, plus the Lexus LX 570 and Bentley Bentayga V8. Frankly, Heir Hoeppel was onto something as each of these is wildly different. But, they do share some common elements: giant size and weight, ultra-lux interiors, and far more off-roading capability than other luxury SUVs offer and any of its owners are likely to ever utilize. Sad. So enjoy this trip down specification lane, and if you're still left hungry, you can always check out our Range Rover comparison or create your very own comparo. Off-Road Clearances and Capability All the fancy off-roading software and special cameras in the world won't do you a lick of good if your SUV is too close to the ground or has low-hanging body work that'll get easily ripped off. As such, check out each of these uber-SUV's ground clearance, approach and departure angles, and wading/fording depths. In this case, the Range Rover has an advantage due to its air suspension that can raise itself into an Off-Roading height that's a whopping 2 inches higher than the new G-Wagen. Sadly for itself, Lexus only provides figures for its air suspension when in normal height. It could match or surpass the Range Rover for all we know (but doubt it). As Land Rover does provide figures for the Range Rover's approach and departure angles in normal and Off-Road height, you can get an idea of just how much clearance the new G-Wagen has without any fancy (and expensive to fix) raising and lowering air suspension hardware. In fact, its departure angle is better than even the Range Rover's Off-Road height. Bentley doesn't provide any such information despite touting the Bentayga's surprising off-roading talents.

Mercedes to market Tesla-powered 2014 B-Class EV in U.S.

Looks like another Tesla Motors investor will be looking to cash in on their connection. Autoweek reports Mercedes-Benz will offer their B-Class in the U.S. with Tesla propulsion.
The magazine says their source at the German automaker confirms plans for a B-Class electric-only vehicle. While Tesla already provides battery packs for the battery-powered Smart ForTwo, the B-Class EV will reportedly have Tesla batteries, motor and other components. U.S. residents should be able to procure one sometime in 2014.
The same Mercedes source says plans for a hybrid B-Class have been postponed for now. Adding a range-extending, gasoline-powered engine to an electric vehicle would put the car into a different class for which rebates and incentives aren't as favorable in the States.