BMW axes hardware-based subscription service, shifting to software subscription services instead

In the last few years, BMW took this concept to its logical extreme, offering software updates that merely enabled hardware features that came pre-installed on its vehicles. Now, BMW appears to be walking back on the idea of the subscription model — at least for its hardware-based features — as BMW's Pieter Nota explains in an interview with Autocar. 

What we don’t do any more – and that is a very well-known example – is offer seat heating by this way. It’s either in or out. We offer it by the factory and you either have it or you don’t have it. ­— Pieter Nota, BMW board member for sales and marketing. 

BMW has clearly seen the community backlash caused by offering features like heated seats and steering wheels as a monthly subscription, but in the interview, Nota defends the model as a value-add. 

We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high. People feel that they paid double – which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say.

While things may change in the future, BMW appears to be moving to a system that would see any hardware features, like heated seats or steering wheels, configured from the factory or simply unavailable to anyone without the hardware.

This news doesn't mean the subscriptions or Connected Drive Store will go away completely. BMW will continue to offer post-sales add-ons in the form of software that can be paid for and downloaded to add functionality to the car. According to Nota, BMW will only allow owners to pay for software services and features that consumers are already used to shelling out for, instead.

We actually are now focusing with those ‘functions on demand’ on software and service-related products, like driving assistance and parking assistance, which you can add later after purchasing the car, or for certain functions that require data transmission that customers are used to paying for in other areas.

Whether that means BMW will revisit the subscription-based hardware features is unclear, but it likely wouldn't be a surprise to many if it did once buyers were more accepting.

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