The subscription model comes for us all in the end, it seems. The concept of owning things seems more and more elusive nowadays, and Volkswagen is now taking the first steps toward enshittifying cars. Apparently Elon Musk needed help.
Volkswagen is a fairly respected entity in the automotive industry (as long as you don't ask what they were doing during World War II), and has even made steps to move away from trend-chasing like this in the past. Now, though? That brand new Volkswagen ID.3 you just bought will need an additional monthly subscription to tap into its actual full performance. Never mind that you bought it and the perfectly capable engine is just sitting there; never mind the presence of any additional monthly payments: pony up twenty bucks a month or you'll be digitally gated from using the full power of your car. Per Auto Express:
Volkswagen says that while selecting the performance upgrade increases net power by 27bhp and the maximum torque from 265Nm to 310Nm, it does not affect range.
As the car is registered at 228bhp from the factory, owners won't need to inform their insurance company, either way.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen what would happen if an owner were to hack their car – also known as 'jailbreaking' – in order to manually switch on the extra power for free. This potentially could invalidate the warranty or even lead to legal action from VW, but Auto Express is waiting to hear back from the firm on this.
In a statement the firm said that "Offering more power to customers is nothing new – historically many petrol and diesel vehicles have been offered with engines of the same size, but with the possibility of choosing one with more potency. These traditionally are higher up in the product range, with more specification and a higher list price."
"If customers wish to have an even sportier driving experience, they now have an option to do so, within the life of the vehicle, rather than committing from the outset with a higher initial purchase price. The car is presented on the configurator with [201bhp], with the option made very clear to customers."
You might not download a car, but did you ever think you'd have to jailbreak one?
