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E.U. executive conditionally approves Daimler, BMW car-sharing deal

BRUSSELS — The European Union's competition authority said on Wednesday it had approved the plan of German luxury carmakers Daimler and BMW to combine their car-sharing businesses, subject to conditions. Under the deal, which includes car-sharing units Car2Go and DriveNow as well as ride-hailing, parking and charging services, Daimler and BMW will each hold 50 percent stakes in a joint venture. They have offered concessions to address E.U. antitrust concerns over the deal they hope would let them better compete with U.S. rival Uber and China's Didi Chuxing. The European Commission has found the deal would raise competition concerns for free-floating car sharing services in Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Munich and Vienna. It said Daimler and BMW agreed to a remedy package in the six cities. "The commitments thus fully address the Commission's concerns as they will reduce the barriers to entry for competing free-floating car sharing providers," the Commission said in a statement. "Therefore the Commission concluded that the proposed transaction, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns. The Commission's decision is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments." Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Philip Blenkinsop. Related Video:

Driving the Aston Martin DBX, Audi SQ5 and Hyundai Palisade | Autoblog Podcast #670

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder and Contributing Editor Joe Lorio. First, they talk about driving the Aston Martin DBX, Audi SQ5 and Autoblog's new long-term Hyundai Palisade. They discuss the news, including the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, the BMW i4 and iX, and the Kia EV6. Last, but not least, they dig into the mailbag to help a listener choose a replacement for a long-serving Honda Pilot. Autoblog Podcast #670 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars We're Driving 2021 Aston Martin DBX 2021 Audi SQ5 Long-term 2021 Hyundai Palisade News 2022 Jeep Wagoneer is here: gigantic, luxurious and packing big V8 power BMW EV news BMW Group announces an armada of EVs that includes the full Mini range BMW i4 revealed as the 3 Series' EV sidekick BMW iX xDrive50 isn't just greener on the road, but from the get-go Kia EV6 electric car revealed with curvy sheetmetal Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related Video: Aston Martin DBX in Stirling Green | On road, off-road and on the track

BMW confirms new Mexican plant

After over a year of speculation, BMW is finally officially announcing that it's building a factory in Mexico. The new plant will cost the German automaker roughly $1 billion US and will have a capacity of about 150,000 vehicles a year when complete. However, production won't begin there until 2019.
The new factory is being built near the city of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, with plans to employ about 1,500 people. Unfortunately, BMW is still mum about which models it's producing south of the border. Earlier rumors indicated the possibility of the 3 Series, 1 Series and maybe even Mini models there.
BMW says Mexico's multiple free trade agreements are a major factor in the choice of location of the plant. They make it possible for the automaker to ship models more cheaply to North America, parts of South America and the European Union. "The Americas are among the most important growth markets for the BMW Group. We are continuing our strategy of 'production follows the market,'" said Harald Krueger, the board's head of production, in the company's official announcement.