The German car-maker says its "optional power upgrade" is designed to give customers more choice.
They’ve had this before, but you’ve had to change chips. Was also hacked. Except that it was a one-off payment now upgraded to subscription.
VW introduces monthly subscription to increase car power
Submitted 3 weeks ago by melroy@kbin.melroy.org to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62weyp4qqgo
Comments
rollerbang@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
So you need to pay to drain your batteries faster for more power which wears them down faster. So you’re paying to shorten the battery life of your car. Only dumb people who think “I wanna go faaaaaaast” will fall for that scam.
RatherBeMTB@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Maybe they want to give better specs to their EVs without actually having them. The subscription might be a way to deter customers from using those capabilities because they degrade the car faster.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
And the choice given is if want your car crippled or you want to cough up money.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Owning a car used to be nice. Heck, even the notion of living in a Capitalist country used to be nice.
biotin7@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
WTF ?
tal@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
According to a survey from S&P Global, some customers may be put off by the cost of in-car subscriptions for features such as connectivity, or by basic functions being split into paid tiers.
I don’t have any particular objection to that. They can choose whatever pricing model they want, and it’s just another number for the spreadsheet in valuing whatever they put on offer. However, I rather suspect that whatever DRM they have on this ties one more-closely to maintaining an Internet connection between the car and auto manufacturer, which I do care about from a privacy standpoint.
And I wonder what happens to one’s subscription if one’s car is no longer able to talk to current cell towers and thus the car can no longer validate that the user has paid the bill this month. Cars that relied 2G cell network connectivity in the past lost their network connectivity when the cell networks took that down in the US. Maybe the feature is just gone forever. Maybe the manufacturer decides to be nice and just perma-unlock the functionality. shrugs
melroy@kbin.melroy.org 3 weeks ago
The moment I bought my id3 they never informed me about this subscription model. Soon I also need to pay if I want to keep my app working for my car, like enabling the airco via the app.
I already paid around 14000-15000 euros for this car. And now I suddenly also need to pay subscriptions? It's not only a subscription for 'increase power'.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
15k? Price crashed like that? When I asked the price in 2020 they told me 45k and I laughed for weeks after that
The fact that they pay the sim card data plan for only the first three years from purchase was known from the beginning. I’m ok with paying but not the price they’re asking. They’re using a $10/year iot sim card for remote access, but want $150/year from the customer? LOL get fucked I would never pay that.
PS: how the remote air control works? I tried the Peugeot one and
-
Allowed activation only if battery was over 50% which is a stupid artificial limitations
-
Literally took 10 minutes to boot and 8 minutes to send the activation signal to the car. In that time I could go to activate it manually
-
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I wonder how this is going to effect stock prices. On one hand it’s bad, but on the other hand shareholders might not care that it’s bad.
mholiv@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Will probably make the price go up. The whole reason why they do this crap is to get more money out of the consumer.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I hate this kind of artificial limitations but in this case I’m totally fine.
Why would you pay for something like that? The stock id 3 has enough power to drive in the city. If someone instead needs to race at the nurburgring, then can unlock the extra power. With more power available and a sporty drive, the car components (motor, battery, gears) get more stress than if you just commute in the traffic.
In a city or in the highway, when you drive safely according to the speed limits you don’t need 300 HP or more under your ass
And if you’re someone that just needs a higher number to feel validated by others (look at that! I paid for the extra Speed mode!), then I’m fine with that, takes money from dumb people and has the potential to make the vehicle cheaper for everyone else.
Evono@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Why should you pay for that is your question ?
The question is , why should you allow them to gimp what you bought artificially
Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you drive like a maniac you put more stress on the components, and on the id 3 the warranty on electric parts is up to 8 years. This offsets for them the risk of someone breaking components under warranty before the mean time to failure.
Almost all car brands are selling a faster trim that’s the same hardware with just different code in the ECU. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that it could be done after the first purchase and there’s also the option of permanent unlock.
Now, for safety I wouldn’t have it made a completely software solution but required a visit to dealer to install bigger breaks and check all the car stuff (oil level in brakes, if the steering is correct, and so on)
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I hate this kind of artificial limitations but in this case I’m totally fine.
This is an environmental disaster. We’re building cars with equipment that will never be used. It costs more materials, time, and energy to manufacture a 300 HP engine than a 200 HP engine. VW might make all models with a 300 HP engine and then require a subscription to increase the power from 200 to 300 HP. Yet, what if you don’t want to use that extra power? You’re still stuck with the weight of the heavier engine! You’re hauling around a uselessly heavy engine, and you’ll be doing so from the moment you buy the car until the end of its life. Even if you don’t want to pay for the subscription-only equipment, you’re still paying for the higher gas costs to haul all this redundant crap around with you. And the environment takes an unnecessary hit for us to manufacture equipment that will never be used. This is an environmental disaster.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The car was introduced 5 years ago, they launched this unlock right now where only the 0.1% of users will actually care and the kind that needs external validation from higher numbers is already with a newer vehicle.
IMHO with all the telemetry gathered they noticed that the motor can sustain higher than spec bursts of power for a short time and tried to cash in that
tal@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
This is an environmental disaster.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_ID.3
The lowest MPGe I see for it is 129, the highest 141.
The Ford F-150 is the most-popular vehicle in the US.
www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/…/2025_Ford_F150.shtml
It has a combined MPG rating of between 16 and 21.
GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
It also means they can build fewer types of engine for the models they make, requiring less tooling, less spare parts, etc. I’m not sure if that is enough to balance the environmental cost of making slightly bigger motors, but a number of companies have come to the conclusion that it’s cheaper than having more engine options.
yoriaiko@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
You will own nothing and be… whatever, gonna talk here and there about this, spread the news, make them drown (as much as nobody me can do that)
ohlaph@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Would you buy a new graphic card only to pay s monthly service to use it? Of course not.
deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 3 weeks ago
Depending on your jurisdiction, your local commerce regulator might have a different opinion of the legality of this that VW, especially when they’re taking away features you already paid for.