In the last two decades, the software business has used a variety of price schemes, including free, freemium, and premium. Both have advantages and disadvantages. However, the hardware sector hasn’t really been affected by these pricing strategies in the same manner. A premium is currently charged by manufacturers to use built-in functions, at least in the car industry, thus it appears that the situation is changing.
The expensive subscription package for the Mercedes-EQ EQE 350 and EQS 450 cars and SUVs has been made public by the premium automaker. Customers can choose to purchase a “Acceleration Increase” membership from its online U.S. store for $1200 per year (excluding of taxes). With the purchase, their car will be able to accelerate 20–24% more quickly from 0 to 60 miles per hour (0-97 kilometres per hour). In essence, a Mercedes-EQ 350 SUV will accelerate to 60 mph in about 5.2 seconds as opposed to 6.2 seconds; other models will have comparable improvements.
This is accomplished by electrically increasing the motor’s output and torque, but it raises some questions because it seems that the automobile already has the required technology built-in to deliver this performance and the only goal of locking it behind a paywall is to increase consumer costs.
Something similar like this has been done previously. BMW began offering monthly memberships for heated seats in July for $18. Similar to this, Toyota unveiled a $8 monthly plan to remotely start its vehicles with a key fob last year.
The majority of customers undoubtedly don’t want the car sector to be moving quickly toward a pricing model that emphasises microtransactions. How successful the business strategy ultimately proves to be is still up in the air. Mercedes-Benz does not currently have any plans to bring the Acceleration Increase subscription to the UK.
Source: BBC
