Two editors, two perspectives: Is the Mercedes subscription model okay?
Go from 0 to 100 faster for $1,200 a year. Mercedes makes this offer recently its US customers. There is the possibility to subscribe for a Acceleration Increasei.e. to complete an acceleration increase.
If you decide to pay the 1,200 US dollars (currently approx. 1,167 dollars) in the annual subscription, you should be able to accelerate to 100 kilometers per hour around 0.8 to 1 second faster. Without completing the subscription, the necessary software tuning will not be installed.
Subscription model for selected models
The choice for or against the subscription is currently available to all owners of EQE and EQS models. In detail, these are the electric four-wheel drive cars EQE 350 4Matic, EQE SUV 350 4Matic, EQS 450 4Matic and EQS SUV 4Matic.
The software update should also fine-tune the electric motor in the models and thus increase horsepower and torque, which ensures the higher acceleration already mentioned. Even with a subscription, none of the Mercedes models will even come close to this monster car from the USA:
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Monster car with 2,500 hp
Tinkerers create a monster car with a tank engine
Subscription models for cars seem to be gaining momentum. Just a few months ago, BMW had also caused a stir. The manufacturer had announced that it would only want to offer some comfort functions such as seat heating for certain models as a subscription.
Are these subscription models in the automotive sector the next logical step or just a rip-off? Is it the most economical way to proceed? Or are the manufacturers just looking for a new way to get more money with the same performance? Our editors Alex and Alana have two very different perspectives on this.
Two editors, two opinions
For me, the two models from Mercedes and BMW are two prime examples of when subscriptions are not okay. Because a subscription, i.e. a regular payment for something, only makes sense if I also get a product that is constantly improving or causes costs.
In other words: Subscriptions are always justifiable if the manufacturer has to operate an infrastructure for them, for example a server center. And they are okay if the manufacturer is constantly developing new updates for the product and playing them out at no additional cost.
However, neither is the case here: It is about a one-time software update at Mercedes or hardware that is already installed at BMW. In the case of BMW, I would even find a one-off payment cheeky, because the hardware is already installed in the car you bought.
At Mercedes, I could still get used to such a one-off payment. The software update as a car DLC: pay a one-off payment of 1,200 US dollars and your car will accelerate faster.
But why I should have to pay money for it every year so that Mercedes does not uninstall the software update that was booked is not understandable to me. It’s all about making money without offering anything in return. This is an enrichment for the customer who is being ripped off for it.
Subscription models at the expense of customers? That sounds familiar to us! In our plus podcast, Micha talks to management consultant Human Nagafi about why platforms with new, exclusive subscriptions keep spoiling the fun of gaming.
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Okay, I can understand why subscription models cause concern for cars. Where is this supposed to lead? In the future, will we still have to pay monthly for our own car to do what it’s supposed to? For 100 dollars more, the braking distance might soon be shorter?
Granted, that’s a bit exaggerated. At the moment it’s practically only about luxury accessories like heated seats or faster acceleration. And I also strongly assume that there will be laws that generally exclude security functions from subscriptions. But it still sounds a bit dystopian.
But I have to say that I can somehow understand the manufacturers. And not just in the spirit of the times, where subscription models are springing up everywhere like mushrooms. No, I can totally understand it.
Where everything used to be hardwired into vehicles with their own buttons and rotary controls, there are now intelligent control programs that have access to everything. In the end, all you need is a tick somewhere and you can switch everything on as you like effortlessly via the touchscreen. Of course, that too is a bit exaggerated, because after all, the seat heating has to be physically present in the seat, despite all the computerization.
However, I could imagine that it would be cheaper for manufacturers to build all the extras in cars from the start than to make different variants with different characteristics. However, I do not dare to assess how this is to be assessed from an ecological point of view. I don’t have the necessary data for this.
In this respect, it may be irritating at first that I have to take out a subscription for a warm butt, but from a technical point of view it makes perfect sense in my opinion. And I can only repeat myself: As long as it only concerns luxury functions, it doesn’t bother me. Maybe that will ultimately bring us a whole step forward socially if people can no longer drive like crazy because of refusal to subscribe, but slowly chug along in silent protest.
In addition, it ultimately stands and falls with how we as customers accept it. If hardly anyone takes out a subscription and does without the bonus acceleration in the course of common sense, Mercedes and BMW will certainly be among the first to abolish them immediately.
You don’t have to take out a subscription for these invisible car speakers that LG has introduced.
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how do you see it? Do you agree with one of our editors? Or is the truth somewhere in between? And would you be willing to subscribe to a car for better performance? We look forward to your opinion in the comments!
