BMW once charged drivers $17 a month to use heated seats that were already built into their cars. At first, it seemed like just another ridiculous subscription...

But the deeper I looked, the more it revealed about a much bigger problem.

Europe’s biggest carmakers are losing China. Volkswagen lost the top spot it held for over 25 years. Porsche’s sales have more than halved. And Chinese brands like BYD are now building cheaper, more advanced cars in half the time.

In this video, I uncover how China went from learning from European automakers to overtaking them, why Volkswagen is now paying Chinese companies for their technology, and how Europe’s obsession with squeezing more money from the same car may have helped create its biggest competitor.

Watch until the end to see why the next “European” car you buy may have more Chinese engineering inside it than you think.

BMW Commits to Subscriptions Even After Heated Seat Debacle

You may not have to pay a monthly fee to keep your butt warm, but BMW isn't backing down from subscription features.

Remember BMW’s subscription seat heater scandal? You’d be forgiven for letting it slip your mind; after all, there’s been more than enough rage bait (automotive and otherwise) to go around in recent years. The short version is this: Both manufacturers and dealers are all about making money on their cars long after the initial sale. Traditionally, that revenue has largely come from maintenance, but since EVs don’t require as much upkeep as internal-combustion cars, the future of that model is in jeopardy. Need proof? Look no further than Tesla, which just paywalled previously standard features behind a new FSD subscription.

But while BMW ultimately backed down over heated seats, the company still believes in the features-as-a-service model, and will continue to offer post-purchase upgrades through its ConnectedDrive platform.

“BMW remains fully committed to the ConnectedDrive environment as an essential part of the global BMW Aftersales strategy,” a BMW spokesperson told The Drive in an emailed statement.

“With these established digital offerings, we offer our customers even more comfort and flexibility in line with their individual wishes after they purchase a vehicle,” the spokesperson said. “This allows customers to opt for additional functions and services retroactively.”

As Tesla has demonstrated, not all post-purchase add-ons have to be subscriptions. The company has offered several of its software-based feature upgrades as one-time purchases through its internal platform. Only recently has the EV builder begun pivoting toward a subscription-only model.

For now, BMW is defaulting to a more traditional approach. If it requires a data package of some sort, it will probably have a recurring fee—and BMW says its customers are already comfortable subscribing to such add-ons.

BMW and Tesla certainly aren’t alone in this. Most semi-autonomous driving software comes with some sort of subscription—often after a trial period—and there’s precedent for subscription add-ons going back much farther than the EV era. GM has been charging membership fees for OnStar services since the mid-1990s, when cellular service coverage was finally sufficient to support the company’s roadside assistance program. We’ve also seen countless app- and infotainment-based “concierge” services come and go over the years.

However you look at it, subscriptions are here to stay—and not just at BMW.

BMW Drops Controversial Heated Seats Subscription, To Refocus On Software Services

BMW has made a U-turn on a controversial subscription service that saw drivers pay a fee to activate the heated seats already fitted to their car.

First announced in 2020, the subscription was intended to be one of many ways to offer flexibility to customers, who could opt in to pay for vehicle functions when it suited them, then stop paying when they were no longer wanted.

But instead of options like increased electric car performance – as was later offered by Mercedes – or other technology-driven functions like autonomous parking or a 5G data connection, BMW drew criticism for charging a subscription for heated seats already installed at the factory.

Now though, BMW will no longer offer such a service. Speaking to Autocar this week, BMW’s board member for sales and marketing, Pieter Nota, said, “We actually are now focusing with those ‘functions on demand’ on software and service-related products, like driving assistance and parking assistance, which you can add later after purchasing the car, or for certain functions that require data transmission that customers are used to paying for in other areas.”

Crucially, Nota said BMW will not offer subscriptions to activate hardware already fitted to the vehicle. He added, “What we don’t do anymore – and that is a very well-known example – is offer seat heating by this way. It’s either in or out. We offer it by the factory and you either have it or you don’t have it.”

BMW found customer uptake for the heated seats subscription was not high. Nota added, “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.”