Summary
- Audi’s recent A3 release in the EU and UK has raised the discussion about vehicle feature subscriptions once more
- Two big points have been raised: That we are a subscription centered society, and that some features should be included automatically
- Statistics support that we are a highly subscribed society, with fully 99% of North American households holding one subscription or another
- Customers are okay with subscribing for premium connectivity, not so much with premium features such as heated seats being subscription based
- Audi offers their subscription in a variety of terms lengths, or you can buy the feature outright in the old fashioned “optional equipment” way
- We think that this approach takes lessons learned from BMW’s failed ConnectedDrive features subscription model, and gives the customer the choice on what they want to do, which is how we think it should be.
A few weeks back, we discussed how in car connectivity is potentially getting out of hand. There are so many connectivity features, from simple smartphone/Bluetooth integration to fully integrated over the air services that download car updates.
A huge debate has erupted over subscriptions, with points in both camps making complete sense, and with Audi’s new A3 being released in Europe with several feature subscription offers, it seemed an appropriate time to analyze the two biggest points from both sides: That we are a subscription centered society, and that some features should be included automatically.
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