volkswagon charging monthly subscription for horsepower upgrade

[webby]

Car buyers have to pay extra to unlock horsepower on Volkswagen vehicles—an ‘uphill battle’ subscription model that has drawn the ire of customers​

Consumers are worried about even more automobile features becoming subscription-based. Volkswagen has a new feature giving consumers the option to pay £16.50, or $22.50, per month to unlock 20 horsepower on its ID.3 vehicles. Despite pushback, subscription features on cars will only become more popular as automobiles increasingly shift toward using more software, according to one Edmunds analyst.

https://fortune.com/2025/08/19/volkswagen-horsepower-subscription-economy-cost-features/

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQNeIcQXy74

 

[Nomar06]

For a measly 20 HP on a heavy EV? Hard pass and they can go F themselves!

 

[Janz3n]

Im sure these subscription services can be hacked, is that not a thing ?
i couldnt imagine having to pay a subscription after spending a ton of money on a new vehicle. i wont be buying anything new again in my life.

 

[Honda-Fan]

Is tuning in the future just going to be a series of executables on a flash drive? Will people flash cars like Amazon Fire Sticks?

If so, I'm gonna buy an EV, get into it's firmware and keep typing '1' into entry fields until I unlock hidden features on my Civic EV like VTEC.msi

 

[ethlar]

I willingly paid 1200 for the performance software on my Polestar, but it was a one time purchase, and took the car from 408 to 476hp and 487 to 502lb-ft, and a remap of the accelerator, took the car to just under 4 second 0-60, figured not a bad deal since it kept the warranties intact too. No way id pay monthly for it though.

@Honda-Fan youre not far off, ive got a separate diag software for the car that lets me get into the configuration and turn on features that are in the cars code but not active, basically changing different line items from one option to another

 

[Honda-Fan]

I willingly paid 1200 for the performance software on my Polestar, but it was a one time purchase, and took the car from 408 to 476hp and 487 to 502lb-ft, and a remap of the accelerator, took the car to just under 4 second 0-60, figured not a bad deal since it kept the warranties intact too. No way id pay monthly for it though.

@Honda-Fan youre not far off, ive got a separate diag software for the car that lets me get into the configuration and turn on features that are in the cars code but not active, basically changing different line items from one option to another

Jailbreaking cars sounds like it's going to be the side-hustle of the century

 

[ethlar]

the guy who makes the volvo/polestar software has a pretty good deal, $100 annual subscription for the software, multifactor authenticates every time you open it, and the base subscription is vin locked for programming. pay per vin or some higher shop level subscription.

downside is volvo/polestar arent friendly to people mucking with the code, they cant tell you did anything unless youve changed physical parts though

 

[webby]

$22.50/month for 20hp is a joke to me though