Hyundai considering subscription fees for in-car features

The restructured tech will come on a larger 10.25-inch infotainment screen and be offered in 3 grades: Lite, Plus & Pro.

Hyundai could be the latest carmaker to get onto the 'subscription fee' bandwagon. According to reports, the South Korean carmaker is considering introducing pay-to-use features in its cars, to keep them connected to their customers post-sale.

Marcus Welz, Head of Hyundai Connected Mobility, stated, "We are looking at feature-on-demand as an option, in order to add more personalisation in the car." He further mentioned, "For years we worried about how we were going to sell more cars. Today we worry about 'what if all we do is sell cars?"

Adding to this, Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, VP for Marketing, Product & PR, Hyundai, stated, "The future of mobility, from today owning cars to transferring to subscriptions."

As per reports, Hyundai plans to restructure its BlueLink connected technology, which currently allows owners to control a number of features, including pre-conditioning, locking/unlocking car and sat-nav. The restructured tech will come on a larger 10.25-inch infotainment screen and be offered in 3 grades: Lite, Plus & Pro. The Lite pack will be free for the first 10 years and will come with in-car map use & only service only. The Plus pack costs 2.99 euros a month and will give access to all remote services. For the top 'Pro' pack, Hyundai will charge 9.99 euros a month and will provide data-driven services, in-cat payments and "connect drivers with surroundings".

Welz further stated that the benefit of feature-on-demand is "to bring new features into older cars." He further mentioned, "A lot of advancements can actually be done through the software, so you can utilise the existing hardware. We will keep developing these features and functionality and then we will provide them to users."

Source: Autocar UK