Electric vehicles might be the wave of the future, but it seems like there might still be a few kinks that need to be worked out of the system.
Mercedes-Benz is locking the full performance ability of their electric vehicles unless owners pay around $1200 a year. They claim the “acceleration increase” will “unleash enhanced performance” on a few of its models.
Mercedes is adding a subscription fee to their electric vehicles that will increase horsepower and torque. It's happening. Late-stage capitalism is going to have people paying a monthly fee to improve the performance of a car they already bought. pic.twitter.com/7rHIkolC9R
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) November 22, 2022
The cars in question are not at all cheap, going for between $90-$195k to begin with, and the acceleration in question will only add about 1 second in their ability to go from 0-60.
Here’s what the company had to say in a statement:
“Acceleration Increase boosts this performance even further; electronically increasing the motor’s output also increases the torque significantly. Fine tuning of the electric motors increases the maximum motor output of your Mercedes-EQ by 20 to 24 percent, depending on the original output from factory. The torque is also increased, enabling your vehicle to accelerate noticeably faster and more powerfully.”
Since the upgrade is in the software, not the hardware, though, the cars already have the capabilities offered by the subscription – they’re being remotely weakened to get folks to pony up more dough.
Microtransactions have come to destroy everything we enjoy https://t.co/oK7uiRsZhI
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) November 24, 2022
Tesla recently implemented a similar in-app upgrade, though after some pushback by backers they scrapped it on some models.
It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out, but it doesn’t seems like these fees will be totally going away anytime soon.
