By
Janis Rijnieks
January 9th, 2020
German automotive giant is launching its own ‘on-the-go’ payment solution to let drivers pay for the company’s mobility services using their mobile phones.
Daimler Financial Services, a financial services division of Mercedes-Benz’ parent company Daimler, has announced the acquisition of the Luxembourg-based digital payments processor PayCash Europe. The sum of the purchase was not disclosed.
The move is part of the company’s strategy to expand its foothold within the digital payments sector. Following the acquisition, Daimler is preparing to launch its own mobile payment solution called Mercedes Pay. With the new feature, customers will be able to easily pay for Daimler’s mobility services using their smartphones.
“’Mercedes pay’ will mainly benefit customers who, in the future, will only need to provide their payment details one time, in order to be able to use a range of Daimler’s services. This is made possible by the eWallet function, a virtual source of payment,” said Klaus Entenmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Financial Services, in a press-release.
Mercedes Pay will be integrated into Daimler Mobility Services, which incorporates a range of various mobility services such as vehicle sharing service Car2Go and the mytaxi taxi-booking app.
“’Mercedes pay’ is a fundamental component of our mobility and digitization strategy. Daimler’s new payment system underscores our ambition, as a leading provider of digital mobility services, to make the products and services we offer even more appealing,” said Bodo Uebber, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler.
Daimler Financial Services plans to use the payments platform to facilitate its vehicle financing operations and other transactions in the future. The company said it had already financed more than four million vehicles.
Established in 2012, PayCash Europe is one of the leading digital payment platforms, which offers bitcoin payment option in addition to its mobile payment services. Currently, the company serves customers across 28 EU Member states.
Daimler is not the only automotive company that is investigating the potential of electronic in-car payments. In October, General Motors entered into agreement with Mastercard and IBM to allow users make purchases via its OnStar Go platform.
During this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Honda unveiled its first proof-of-concept of its in-vehicle payments platform. The service lets users to pay for fuel and parking by touching a button on the car dashboard.
Another automotive giant, Volkswagen Group, has recently announced the acquisition of mobile payment system PayByPhone to increase its presence in the mobile payments sector. In 2016, Ford launched FordPay to let vehicle owners easily pay for such services as car parking with their mobile phones.
