BMW rolls back on heated seat subscriptions

It’s lasted a little over a year, but BMW has finally seen the light – or the lack of take-up, more like – and has dropped the contentious option to subscribe to use the installed heated seat function in its most affordable X1.

According to top BMW brass, the brand will forge ahead with subscription upgrades for software-based content including, for example, self-parking features that use existing hardware.

However, BMW board member for sales and marketing, Pieter Nota, told UK publication Autocar [↗] that the German brand would no longer charge its customers to switch on a function that was already installed on a car, and specifically mentioned seat heating as an example.

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“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,” Nota said.

“People feel that they paid double – which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that.”

The X1 sDrive18i is the only BMW in Australia that was encumbered with the heated seat sub, which could add up to $589 to the cost of the car with the uptake of a lifetime subscription.

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The brand’s local ConnectedDrive web page doesn’t display an option for heated seats, though other functions including wireless Apple CarPlay ($450) and High Beam Assistant ($259) are present.

The Equipment Package for the sDrive18i includes “preparation” for front seat heating, according to the Australian specs, while the sDrive20i offers heating functionality out of the box.

BMW Australia has been contacted for comment.

While this instance of charging customers to activate existing hardware may have gone down poorly with consumers, it’s a rapidly growing sector of the automotive industry.

And there are potentially billions of dollars of revenue on the table for those companies that get the mix right.

Ford, for example, says it already has half a million subscribers for its Ford Integrated Services business, which will be run by Apple’s former vice president of services, Peter Stern.

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However, there will be headwinds. A 2022 study by Cox Automotive in the US revealed that 75 per cent of consumers are unwilling to subscribe to most vehicle features.

More than 90 per cent of survey respondents said heated and cooled seats should be included in a car's ticket price, while 89 per cent said that remote-start functions should also be standard fare.

The end game? A potential windfall of US$20 billion a year for the major car companies, as well as the opportunity to shore up dwindling brand loyalty statistics by keeping customers updated with the latest and greatest.