It is talked about that BMW offers a 'paid plan of about 2500 yen per month' for seat heaters
BMW Makes Heated Seats an $ 18 / Month Subscription Service—Again
https://www.thedrive.com/news/bmw-is-charging-a-subscription-fee-for-heated-seats-again
No, BMW is not making heated seats a subscription for US cars | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/07/no-bmw-is-not-making-heated-seats-a-subscription-for-us-cars/
BMW starts selling heated seat subscriptions for $ 18 a month --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-subscriptions-microtransactions-heated-seats-feature
BMW offers ' BMW Connected Drive ' as a service that enables you to use various services and applications such as BMW iDrive , remote software upgrades , and My BMW app . It is reported that BMW users in South Korea are in a situation where they need to purchase as a paid service at BMW Connected Drive if they want to use seat heaters and steering heaters.
According to media reports, seat heaters are offered for 24,000 won (about 2,500 yen) per month in South Korea, about $ 176 (about 24,000 yen) for a one-year contract, and about 283 for a three-year contract. It is $ (about 39,000 yen), and if you pay $ 406 (about 56,000 yen), you will be able to use the heat seater permanently instead of contracting in a subscription format.
In South Korea, the drive recorder function, drive assistant plus function, high beam assistant function, etc. are provided as paid services of BMW Connected Drive, but at the time of writing the article, the list of paid services of Connected Drive on the official BMW website in South Korea The seat heater and steering heater have been removed from.
BMW ConnectedDrive | BMW.kr
Overseas media The Verge said, 'BMW sells seat heater functions in many countries and regions in a subscription format. This is the latest example of adopting microtransaction for high-end automobile functions.' Press. 'It is not clear when BMW started offering seat heaters as a subscription, and in which countries and regions it offers this feature in a subscription format,' he said. It is pointed out that seat heaters are also offered as a monthly fee service in the region. According to The Verge, countries that offer seat heaters as a monthly fee service include the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, etc., but there are no plans to introduce it as a monthly fee service in Australia. thing.
'Of course, automakers have always charged their customers more for high-end features, but if software, not hardware, is a factor in limiting functionality, the dynamics are much different,' said The Verge. By limiting functionality with software rather than hardware, automakers will be able to exploit more money from users.
In fact, in the case of BMW vehicles, functions such as seat heaters provided by paid services are also installed in the vehicle from the beginning. BMW limits this in terms of software, and only lifts this limit for users who have paid for paid services. So, The Verge said, 'For software features that automakers have to pay on an ongoing basis (such as automatic traffic camera alerts), it seems reasonable to charge for a subscription, but the seat. In the case of heaters, that's not the case. '
In the UK, steering heaters are offered for $ 12 a month (about 1600 yen).
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