FRANKFURT: German car makers BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz have teamed up to buy digital mapping service HERE for 2.8 billion euros ($3.1 billion) from Nokia, the Finnish telecoms group said.

The sale “should be concluded in the first quarter of 2016,” Nokia said in a statement, adding that it expected net proceeds from the deal of just over 2.5 billion euros.

The three German luxury car makers, which were already clients of HERE, said in a separate statement that they would hold equal shares in what would be an unprecedented type of partnership in the sector.

“HERE is laying the foundations for the next generation of mobility and location-based services,” they said, adding that the technology would eventually be used in self-driving cars.

The companies touted HERE’s maps of nearly 200 countries in more than 50 languages as being able to use “swarm intelligence” to provide constant updates on hazards such as icy roads, accidents and traffic jams.

The joint acquisition, which will have to be approved by competition authorities, is aimed at maintaining HERE’S products and services “as an open, independent and value-creating platform” in the automotive industry and beyond, the car makers added.

“We want to secure the independence of this central service for all vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and customers in other industries,” Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche added.

Nokia paid $8.1 billion in 2008 for US digital map provider Navteq, one of the firms that merged to create HERE, a direct competitor of Google Maps. The German acquisition deal had been in the works for months.