Volkswagen charges a subscription for full engine power
- Thread starter Grim5
- Start date
I fully agree with Rossman
How about the fact this is a 200 hp car by default and you can pay an all up front fee to increase the power to 230 hp. Or you can use a monthly subscription to unlock it.
Polestar and others have offered these paid performance upgrades in the past as well.
The Cupra Born has had the same 200 and 230 hp (eBoost) versions behind an up front cost for quite some time now.
Storm in a tea cup to be brutally honest because the base model 59kWh and 79kWh ID.3s have been 200 hp since release.
You can unlock more power with a subscription for £16.50 per month (which can be cancelled) or £165 annually - or people can choose to pay £649 to unlock forever the car lifetime.
Polestar and others have offered these paid performance upgrades in the past as well.
The Cupra Born has had the same 200 and 230 hp (eBoost) versions behind an up front cost for quite some time now.
Storm in a tea cup to be brutally honest because the base model 59kWh and 79kWh ID.3s have been 200 hp since release.
You can unlock more power with a subscription for £16.50 per month (which can be cancelled) or £165 annually - or people can choose to pay £649 to unlock forever the car lifetime.
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Cars have been sold with locked features, software and detuned engines for decades.
I suspect a lot of the 'outrage' around this is because now the manufacturers themselves want to make some money from it, they'll be putting more effort into locking these things away and it'll be more difficult enabling these prefitted things with a £50 OBD device or paying a driveway remapper £200 to add a bunch of power.
It probably hasn't helped that the popups on the VW website seem slightly broken and say...
...even if you've selected the 170PS rather than the 204PS model on the configurator, which probably confuses a few people into thinking they're being advertised as having more power than they do.
I suspect a lot of the 'outrage' around this is because now the manufacturers themselves want to make some money from it, they'll be putting more effort into locking these things away and it'll be more difficult enabling these prefitted things with a £50 OBD device or paying a driveway remapper £200 to add a bunch of power.
It probably hasn't helped that the popups on the VW website seem slightly broken and say...
...even if you've selected the 170PS rather than the 204PS model on the configurator, which probably confuses a few people into thinking they're being advertised as having more power than they do.
I'm not a fan of the model but when you think about it, this is just a far more upfront way of doing what has been standard practice for years now.
Lets keep it VW. The same 2.0 TSI engine could have multiple different power outputs the only difference being software.
With OTA updates why not make it a retrospective option to unlock that extra power? It makes even more sense with electric as there isn't even the possibility of considerations such as different service intervals to allow for the extra strain on the engine.
As for the monthly model, imagine you are a regular Joe who has the opportunity to scratch an itch of doing a couple of laps of the Nurburgring. For very little cost you can unlock a bit more power for the month to use on that trip and go back to the reality of the M6 and rush hour traffic when you're done.
EDIT - When I was company car shopping back in 2018 I was finding nearly new and pre-reg models with CarPlay not enabled. "That'll be an extra £250 Sir". To me that is far worse!
EDIT 2 - Just tried the video but had to quit at "so forgive me if I get anything wrong when converting from British to English"
Also, another thought... anyone who has done used car shopping must have come across the perfect car only to find that a must have option for you wasn't specified by the original owner. Few hundred quid on DLC and boom, problem solved.
Lets keep it VW. The same 2.0 TSI engine could have multiple different power outputs the only difference being software.
With OTA updates why not make it a retrospective option to unlock that extra power? It makes even more sense with electric as there isn't even the possibility of considerations such as different service intervals to allow for the extra strain on the engine.
As for the monthly model, imagine you are a regular Joe who has the opportunity to scratch an itch of doing a couple of laps of the Nurburgring. For very little cost you can unlock a bit more power for the month to use on that trip and go back to the reality of the M6 and rush hour traffic when you're done.
EDIT - When I was company car shopping back in 2018 I was finding nearly new and pre-reg models with CarPlay not enabled. "That'll be an extra £250 Sir". To me that is far worse!
EDIT 2 - Just tried the video but had to quit at "so forgive me if I get anything wrong when converting from British to English"
Also, another thought... anyone who has done used car shopping must have come across the perfect car only to find that a must have option for you wasn't specified by the original owner. Few hundred quid on DLC and boom, problem solved.
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Seems like a scam.
If they leave a higher tune accessible on the ECU people will just start enabling it themselves. Individuals really don't care about software agreements and licensing and VW chasing people for it would be extremely bad for business.
If they leave a higher tune accessible on the ECU people will just start enabling it themselves. Individuals really don't care about software agreements and licensing and VW chasing people for it would be extremely bad for business.
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Or looking at it from a consumer point of view: It's a 230hp car by default, but has been deliberately crippled by the manufacturer unless you pay them extra.
At least with an ICE, often when you buy the car with the faster version of the same engine, there are other drivetrain components upgraded as well to handle the extra power (yes I know this isn't always the case).
This is basically the equivalent of buying a game for full price but only being able to set it to 720p/30FPS unless you pay an extra £5/month.
It's interesting that this didn't cause outrage when Cupra were selling a 204PS version of the Born or an otherwise identical 230PS e-boost version for £800 extra at point of sale.
Which also meant the 204PS version was permanently 'crippled', unlike what VW are offering with the ID3 where any subsequent owner can choose to add the option in future.
I wasn't aware of that one - doesn't it also come with a different steering wheel and upgraded brakes? Pretty sure you can't just download those!
sounded like a peanuts/gimmick increase in power and they don't seem to say what it does for the torque (for overtaking) , would prefer to spend more money on their
second generation, higher efficiency 280hp 550 motor - will they make similar tech improvements on lower power motors, offset with cheaper LFP, too.
e: if you are not familiar video
second generation, higher efficiency 280hp 550 motor - will they make similar tech improvements on lower power motors, offset with cheaper LFP, too.
e: if you are not familiar video
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It may have done, which might explain why it was an £800 uplift where VW are only charging something like £650 for enabling the power on the ID3.
The broad principle is similar though - all those 204PS cars are fitted with a 230PS capable motor that is software locked and was only unlockable at a single point in time - at least with the VW model, as a second hand buyer I could buy any of the relevant 204PS cars and choose to unlock the 230PS later, even if the original buyer didn't want it.
Edit - another interesting example that didn't spawn loads of outrage but isn't really much different (presumably because it came with something physical in the form of a noisy exhaust) is the 'power kit' you could buy from BMW to up power in the 340i and 440i of the time from 320bhp to 360bhp. But if it has a 360bhp capable engine, why weren't they all that as standard?
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The Cupra Born is essentially and ID3, so VW were probably testing the waters with it
As I said, just because the engine in isolation is capable of the increased power, doesn't mean all the other drivetrain components and ancillaries are. Again, it's almost certainly not always the case, but often the higher power versions do come with additional hardware changes as well.
Now whether those additional hardware changes are sufficient to justify the increased cost is another matter...
We could go around on this all day, I don’t see it your way at all. It’s a 200 hp car by default with you having the ability to get more power for a fee.
Quite, it's a matter of perception, some people see it as a nice little bonus, some as scummy business practice - ultimately the market will decide.
The fundamental root of the topic is "are you entitled to all the theoretical capabilities of a car on the basis that it could be technically capable of those things in the configuration in which you bought it even if it wasn't advertised as including those things?"
Rossmann is presenting the argument that "Well it was fitted, so i've paid for it" but i'm not sure this can realistically stack up in an increasingly modular and standardised method of manufacturing.
Another example - in some cars, a single multifunctional camera is utilised for functions such as sign recognition, high beam assist, lane assist etc. but the car might only be sold with lane assist enabled as standard, with the other features as options. Are you then entitled to high beam assist and sign recognition regardless on the basis that the hardware to provide that functionality is present in the car because it's providing another function?
Are you buying what is advertised and sold to you or are you buying the theoretical capability of everything that happens to be installed on the car regardless of what you were sold it was capable of?
Rossmann is presenting the argument that "Well it was fitted, so i've paid for it" but i'm not sure this can realistically stack up in an increasingly modular and standardised method of manufacturing.
Another example - in some cars, a single multifunctional camera is utilised for functions such as sign recognition, high beam assist, lane assist etc. but the car might only be sold with lane assist enabled as standard, with the other features as options. Are you then entitled to high beam assist and sign recognition regardless on the basis that the hardware to provide that functionality is present in the car because it's providing another function?
Are you buying what is advertised and sold to you or are you buying the theoretical capability of everything that happens to be installed on the car regardless of what you were sold it was capable of?
This is both, depending on your preference. You can subscribe or pay outright.