Not even Run The Jewels could save Car2go. Share Now, which formed when Car2go and DriveNow merged, announced today that the car-sharing company will be pulling all operations out of North America by Feb. 29. It will, however, continue business in select European countries.
Share Now operates in New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and in Montreal and Vancouver in Canada. It was previously launched in other cities as well, but several issues forced the company out of places such as Chicago and San Diego. Now, the remaining cities will follow suit. In a press release, Share Now explained its reasoning with extremely general verbage.
"This decision was made based on two extremely complicated realities," the company said. "The first being the volatile state of the global mobility landscape, and the second being the rising infrastructure complexities facing North American transportation today and the associated costs needed to sustain operations here. While we had remained hopeful that we would be able to come to a solution — especially these last few months — we are ultimately not in a position to commit to the level of investment necessary to make the North American market successful both in the near and long term."
In addition to closing its American branches, Share Now is also shuttering business in three of its European locations: London, Florence and Brussels, due to "low adoption rates." Though Share Now also announced this week that it is doubling its fleet in Paris by adding 400 electric smart EQ Fortwos and smart EQ Forfours.
In the broader picture, Share Now is part of a massively wide-reaching web of mobility services. At the top is the BMW Group, which owned Drive Now, and Daimler AG, which controlled Car2go. BMW and Daimler created a joint venture in 2019 called Your Now. Your Now has three core pillars: Share Now, Free Now, Park Now and Charge Now.
Free Now, formerly MyTaxi, includes taxi services, ride-hailing, electric scooter services, electric bicycle services, and public transportation. Share Now, as we mentioned, is a combination of ride-sharing businesses Car2go and DriveNow. Park Now and Charge Now do exactly as their names indicate.
The new umbrella seemingly aims to control nearly every part of transportation and mobility, including every recent fad that has popped up in the past decade. Whether it's sharing a car, calling a car, or ditching cars altogether, BMW and Daimler want their pieces.
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