Share Now, a car sharing startup owned by Daimler and BMW, is exiting North America and moving to 18 European cities

Share Now, a car-sharing once known as Car2Go, is exiting North America and moving overseas. The company made the announcement on its website. The Daimler and BMW-owned car sharing service, is exiting North America and three European cities. The company said the decision to close North America was made based on two extremely complicated realities.

The first being the volatile state of the global mobility landscape, and the second being the rising infrastructure complexities facing North American transportation today – such as a rapidly evolving competitive mobility landscape. The company also said lack of necessary infrastructure to support new technology (including electric vehicle car share) and rising operating costs, was the reason for the move.

Founded in 2008, Share Now is a German car rental company, formed from the merger of car2go and DriveNow. It is a subsidiary of Daimler AG providing carsharing services in urban areas in Europe and North America. As of July 2019, car2go is the largest carsharing company in the world with over four million registered members and a fleet of over 20,000 vehicles in 31 cities across North America and Europe.

You can read the full announcement:

SHARE NOW, in conjunction with its shareholders at Daimler AG and The BMW Group, has decided to exit the North American market and cease operations in London, Brussels and Florence, effective February 29, 2020.

The decision to close North America was made based on two extremely complicated realities. The first being the volatile state of the global mobility landscape, and the second being the rising infrastructure complexities facing North American transportation today – such as a rapidly evolving competitive mobility landscape, the lack of necessary infrastructure to support new technology (including electric vehicle car share) and rising operating costs.

Further, despite our best efforts and investments in Brussels, London and Florence over the years, we are unable to continue operations in a manner that’s sustainable for our business due to low adoption rates.

Moving forward, SHARE NOW will focus on the remaining 18 European cities. We, along with our shareholders, believe these markets show the clearest potential for profitable growth and mobility innovation.

We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to every employee, member, business partner and city stakeholder who have supported us throughout the years in these markets. We deeply regret the inconvenience this decision causes.