Mytaxi to change name to Free Now following €1bn BMW and Daimler deal
▻https://www.siliconrepublic.com/companies/mytaxi-free-now-bmw-daimler
International wird eine Fusion der „deutschen Automobilgiganten“ wahrgenommen, die ein „game changer“ will sagen ein ernstzunehmender Uber-Konkurrent werden soll.
The ride-hailing firm Mytaxi is undergoing yet another name change following a partnership between BMW and Daimler.
A massive shake-up in the public transport and mobility space is underway in Europe following the announcement of a deal between two German auto giants, Daimler and BMW. Announced today (22 February), the companies said they are pooling a number of their services together to create a joint entity across five different ventures.
They are investing more than €1bn in total to more closely intermesh their five offerings under new names: Reach Now for multimodal services, Charge Now for charging, Free Now for taxi ride-hailing, Park Now for parking and Share Now for car-sharing.
The more immediate sign of change from an Irish perspective will be the fact that the Daimler-owned Mytaxi service will be changing its name to the Free Now brand as part of the deal some time later this year. The other four brands named by Daimler and BMW are currently not operating in Ireland.
‘We are creating a leading global game-changer’
This marks the second name change in less than two years following the UK taxi app Hailo’s merger with Daimler’s Mytaxi service in 2016. During the official switchover from Hailo to Mytaxi, users were required to install the Mytaxi app; however, this time around there will be no need to download the Free Now app as it will update automatically.
“The most important thing to remember is that there will be no change to the Mytaxi service and app,” Mytaxi said. “We’ll still have the same app, the same local team and the same five-star drivers – just with a new name later this year.”