It’s safe to say nobody likes it when a company locks the full potential of a vehicle they already bought behind a monthly subscription, which is what Volkswagen is doing in the UK. As Electrek and Auto Express have reported, the automaker now lists the Volkswagen ID.3 Pro and Pro S on its UK website with lesser horsepower that what they’re capable of. In a footnote for the ID.3 Pro S Essential page, the company notes that for new orders, 150 kW or 201 horsepower is now the new standard for engine power. Customers can only enjoy the electric vehicle’s 228 hp (170 kW) capability if they activate an “optional power upgrade for a fee.”
They can pay $22 (£16.50) a month to unlock the EV’s full horsepower, pay for the whole year at once or pay a one-time lifetime fee of $880 (£649). Based on Volkswagen’s wording, the one-time fee is good for the lifetime of the car, not the owner’s. If the customer sells their EV, the new owner also gets the upgrade. They’d then have to pay for it again if they buy a new EV that had also been paywalled. Owners will at least get a free month-long trial in case they want to figure out if they truly needed that extra muscle.
Back in 2022, BMW also locked its cars’ heated seat feature in some countries behind an $18-per-month subscription fee. It offered to unlock automatic high beams for roughly $12 and steering wheel heating for another $12, as well. Like in Volkswagen’s case, the EV’s hardware were already capable of all those features, and customers didn’t need to have anything installed. It was all just a matter of paying to unlock their availability. Well, as one would expect, users didn’t like that. A year later, BMW scrapped its hardware subscription service and said that it will no longer make customers pay extra for hardware functions going forward.