By Paul Best | Fox 10 Phoenix
Mercedes-Benz is releasing a new “Acceleration Increase” feature for its electric vehicles that costs $1,200 a year for drivers to “unleash enhanced performance” of their cars.
The subscription will allow the Mercedes-EQ EQE and Mercedes-EQ EQS to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph .8 to 1.0 seconds faster through “fine tuning of the electric motors,” according to the German automaker.
“The feeling of driving your Mercedes-EQ is a new experience every day – particularly its powerful, immediate acceleration,” Mercedes explains. “Acceleration Increase boosts this performance even further: electronically increasing the motor’s output also increases the torque significantly, giving you a faster 0-to-60 MPH time.”
Subscription-based options are becoming more common among car and motorcycle manufacturers, particularly with electric vehicles. For the manufacturers, this approach to selling options is highly profitable because it allows them to reduce costs by building vehicles that are mechanically identical – the necessary hardware is in place in every car but its function is locked behind a software-based paywall. In turn, because the option is sold as a subscription, the manufacturer can sell the same option to the vehicle’s owner – and all of its subsequent owners – annually instead of just once. For consumers, the idea of continuing to pay for options after buying the car itself is frustrating to say the least.
Eric Hill, automotive investment attorney at Rose Law Group
