In the United States, Mercedes wants to charge customers of EQE and EQS a subscription that allows them to enjoy better power on their vehicle.
Thanks to their connectivity, our cars can now take advantage of remote updates. This can help fix a bug, improve an existing feature, or even add a new one. What is creating a new trend in the automobile: options on demand.
Brands are beginning to offer equipment not in the form of options to be checked off when purchasing, but in the form of options that are taken out via a subscription during the life cycle of the vehicle. Very concrete example at BMW: heated seats available once morest 20 € per month. The interest seems to be to pay for equipment when it is useful, the winter months in this case.
Mercedes is not left out, launching this kind of options with its new electric flagships, but with a more technical aspect. For example, in China, the customer of an EQS can have rear-wheel steering for a monthly extension. And now the brand with the star has just launched the “Acceleration Increase” service on the same principle in the United States.
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With this option, still by subscription, you increase the maximum power of your car remotely. Mercedes offers this with the SKIP et EQS, as well as their SUV derivative. With the EQE 350 4MATIC, the maximum power increases from 215 to 260 kW. For the EQS, on the 450 4MATIC version, we climb from 265 to 330 kW.
Vehicle performance is therefore improved. Example, with the EQE SUV, the 0 to 100 km/h is no longer dispatched in 6.2 seconds, but in 5.2 seconds. A significant gain… but is it useful? The cost is $1200 per year, $100 per month (around €100)! It is however for the moment a system announced as available “soon”. Maybe Mercedes is giving itself a deadline to see the reactions of the customers.
Of course, time is money. But the buyer of this type of vehicle is already paying a tidy sum at the dealership and therefore discovers that his model is deliberately restricted when leaving the factory. His car is equipped with engines that he has paid well but which cannot give their full potential. At this level of the range, the power limitation by electronics may seem out of place. This also creates doubt regarding the real power of the vehicle that we have, with or without a paid option.
