The new subscription model is absolutely real, and BMW already asks its South Korean customers to pay ₩24,000/month if they wish to enjoy the luxury of heated seats.
Subscriptions have been pretty much ruling the business world in recent years, and the automotive industry is definitely not an outlier. One of the best-known examples is Tesla‘s Full Self Driving (FSD) which can be accessed only after paying a premium. Now, BMW has joined the club and introduced a subscription plan for built-in features.
At the moment, the subscription model has already been launched in South Korea and comes at ₩24,000 per month or about $18.27 as per current exchange rates. Alternatively, there is also a yearly subscription plan, a three-year plan, and a lifetime subscription option, each coming at $176, $283, and $406 respectively.
Unsurprisingly, the subscription plan does not stop with the heated seats. Want a comfortable heated steering wheel? You’ll have to shell out $10 per month, or $92 a year. The same goes with wireless Apple CarPlay, priced at $305. Still, the most ridiculous is really the IconicSounds Sport feature that will boom fake engine sounds through your speakers, only $138 for a lifetime subscription.
But why? What does BMW get out of this subscription project? More money, of course. Indeed, Stellantis has estimated that its subsidiary would be earning around $23 billion from this project alone by the end of this decade — that’s no cheap change. Although BMW owners are not necessarily obligated to pay the subscription fee, it is clear that many will opt to.
Even worse, the features signed for will be activated through an “over-the-air” update. So once the owner logs into the BMW ConnectedDrive Store and pays the subscription fee, the feature will be activated immediately. Simply put, people will be paying for features that are already built into the car from the factory.
On the other hand, if you don’t plan to use these features, BMW’s new subscription model could be beneficial to you, assuming the price tag would consequently be set lower considering that most of the creature comfort features are now “technically” optional.
But is this really where we want the automotive industry to be heading? What do you think? Would you be ready to shell out for heated seats? Let us know in the comment section below!
