BMW customers outraged over heated seat subscription
BMW has reversed its decision on a controversial subscription service that required drivers to pay a fee to activate the pre-installed heated seats in their cars.
This subscription, first introduced in 2020, was meant to offer customers flexibility by allowing them to pay for specific vehicle functions when needed and stop paying once they no longer required those functions.
However, instead of offering options like enhanced electric car performance or other technology-driven features such as autonomous parking or a 5G data connection, BMW faced backlash for demanding a subscription fee for heated seats that were already included in the factory-fitted configuration.
Now, BMW has decided to discontinue this service. In an interview with Autocar this week, Pieter Nota, BMW’s board member for sales and marketing, stated: “We are now focusing on software and service-related products with our ‘functions on demand.’ These include features like driving assistance and parking assistance, which can be added to the vehicle after its purchase or for functions that require data transmission and customers are already accustomed to paying for in other areas.”
Importantly, Nota confirmed that BMW will no longer provide hardware activation subscriptions for features already present in the vehicle. He added, “We no longer offer features such as seat heating through subscription. It’s either included or not. Seat heating is now offered as part of the factory configuration and customers will either have it or they won’t.”
According to Nota, the uptake for the heated seats subscription was low, as customers felt they were being charged twice for the same feature. He explained, “Perception is reality, and people believed they were paying double, which was actually not true. That’s why we decided to discontinue it.”
Moving forward, BMW drivers can expect the option to subscribe to software-based functions like parking assistance.
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