By Chuck Martin
The Volkswagen Group is purchasing a majority stake in Volvo’s wholly-owned subsidiary WirelessCar for $123 million.
The Volvo Group has signed an agreement to divest 75% of the shares of its subsidiary, with the closing of the deal expected during the first half of 2019, according to Volvo.
“We are committed to remaining the leader within the field of connectivity and connected services,” stated Jan Gurander, deputy CEO of the Volvo Group. “This agreement will enable us to fully focus our resources and efforts on connected solutions for commercial vehicles.”
WirelessCar, founded in 1999, has more than 3 million active connected cars globally and is based in Sweden, with offices in the U.S. and China. The connected car company has its own technology platform and develops digital services including billing services such as tolls, remote diagnostics and breakdown services.
The Volkswagen Group is using WirelessCar’s connectivity technology in the development of the digital ecosystem that VW is working on with technology partners with the intent of providing full connectivity in future vehicles.
“Our aim is to develop the Volkswagen into a mobility provider with a fully connected fleet,” stated Christoph Hartung, head of digital and new business/mobility services at Volkswagen. “Our customers will be able to use digital value-added services in their cars or on their mobile devices at all times.”
