Auto subscription: a sickle, only cut leeks

The car company is trying to accept the "hot water hot frog" method to accept the car owner: what you buy is only the result of the right to use the car, and the result of the use of the right to use.

Some time ago, Mercedes -Benz launched a rear wheel steering function of 4998 yuan/year in China. Miao is wonderful. This paid function is only for the entry -level EQS 450+ Pioneer model, which is standard on other EQS models. Some media voted for Mercedes -Benz's after -unlocking. Among the 6,625 voters participated in the number of voters, 6,293 were selected to refuse to pay.

One month later, BMW launched paid subscription services such as monthly/annual seat heating, steering wheel heating, high -beam heating, high beam auxiliary, driving recorder, and ICONICSOUNDS SPORT sound simulation.

As soon as the news came out, it was questioned and criticized by the media and riders. Even third -party companies publicly stated that as long as BMW dares to collect money, we dare to crack; if BMW refuses to warranties on the grounds of this, then we will directly change the hardware modification of the owner.

Everyone's dissatisfaction is concentrated in two aspects:

[1] The hardware prices of these functions have been split into the price of the vehicle. The owner paid for this function at the beginning. As a result, when it was used, he had to pay for it?

[2] There is no one -time buying option, and you have to use a month or years if you want to use it. Everyone feels very cost -effective.

A car owner calculated the account:

I spend 158 yuan/year to buy a Netease Cloud member, and I can play anytime, anywhere at any time. Even after downloading the song, you can listen without the Internet. But I spend more than 1,600 yuan/year to buy a BMW cushion heating function, which can only be used in winter, and some cities have so many days a month because there is no way to drive. This calculation is equivalent to spending more than 10 times the price of Netease Cloud members, rented a function that is not so commonly used, and has paid for the corresponding hardware, which is indeed a bit bullying an honest person.

In fact, this is not the first time that traditional car companies have launched subscription systems, nor are they being sprayed for the first time.

01

Traditional car companies' love for subscription system

After bumpy, never give up

As early as 2009, Toyota launched the G-Book service to the Lexus owner. After purchasing, the owner can enjoy 24 hours of artificial online services, and inquire about weather forecast, path retrieval, road rescue, news broadcast and other content anytime, anywhere. The service price is RMB 840 per year.

I can't imagine it now. Shouldn't these services be the function of the car? Even if there is no in the car, there is everything in the joint network, and it is faster and more accurate than the operator. So why do I pay for this function, in order to talk to the operator?

In 2018, BMW also tried to the owner who installed Apple Carplay to charge a subscription fee of $ 80/year. In 2019, he gave up because of strong opposition. In 2021, Toyota came up with a package of remote control/lock -up of 80 dollars and $ 80 in the year. As a result, the opposition to the waves was too high, and Toyota hurriedly stated that he had to evaluate it, and he did not dare to do it.

Through the subscription system, car companies successfully stood on the opposite side with consumers. Nevertheless, Ford, Volkswagen, Porsche, GM, Audi and other car companies are constantly launching subscribing payment content. Why do car companies prefer to undergo huge pressure on public opinion and unswervingly engage in subscription system? This question may be the most qualified to answer.

02

Subscription system

A strong suction gold stone

Judging from Tesla's financial report in recent years, Tesla is more and more like a software company. Nowadays, the mainstream business model of software companies is a subscription system for payment. Microsoft Office 360, the price is nearly 400 to 500 yuan a year. Adobe's Photoshop, the price of North America is nearly 142 yuan per month; the domestic price is RMB 3499/year.

For example: A ten -year -old photographer, the money that Guanghua on Photoshop contributed nearly 35,000 yuan in income for Adobe. If you simply sell the software, you can't sell such a high price anyway. More importantly, this price can be dynamically adjusted. As a result, companies can try to continuously improve consumer's patience and gain higher profits.

Tesla did this. At the beginning, after buying Tesla, the owner was only a basic electric vehicle. The more advanced features need to pay to unlock.

As far as the main function of Naptezla's main function, "FSD), some car owners have expressed their good experience. The entire process of long -distance travel has almost no need to perform manual intervention. The risk of fatigue driving is greatly alleviated.

Of course, this function needs to be paid to use, and the price is rising year by year.

In 2015, Tesla's FSD price was $ 2,500/set. In 2018, the price doubled, $ 5,000/set. By 2019, the third -generation FSD was released, and the price rose to $ 8,000/set. The price increased to $ 10,000/set in 2020. So far, FSD is still "one -time purchase, lifelong use" model. However, on July 10, 2021, Tesla completely changed the FSD to paid subscription, $ 199/month.

However, in order to take care of the old golden players, the owner who has previously purchased Tesla enhanced auxiliary driving Enhanced Autopilot (EAP) package and pays $ 1500 for a hardware upgrade fee, you can enjoy $ 99/month's FSD preferential price. Other seats such as seat heating, better acceleration function, and advanced entertainment services require payment to unlock. According to data, the selection rate of FSD kits at present is about 27%in the world, and it is bringing more additional income to Tesla. Tesla's financial report shows that services and other contributions to income are increasing. In the first quarter of 2022, it was $ 1.279 billion, and the same period last year was $ 893 million.

In terms of the above performance, Morgan Stanley believes that Tesla's network services are not only broad in prospects, but also the primary push for maintaining its stock price. It predicts that this revenue will reach $ 5 billion by 2025 and $ 14.5 billion in 2030.

Pierre Ferragu, an analyst of New Street research company, estimates that by 2030, Tesla sells a car and earn a total of $ 7,000. However, through paid subscription services, only FSD, a car can bring additional $ 23,000 to Tesla every year, which is 3.3 times the income of car sales.

Where is the difference between traditional car companies and Tesla?

03

The more intelligent cars

The better the subscription system, the better the realization

Today, cars, like mobile phones, are becoming a hardware defined by software.

People who buy cars not only consider the performance of hardware, but also consider software functions and content services. The car networking has become the basic function. The higher the intelligence level of the vehicle, the closer the connection with the network, and the more detailed control of the vehicle can be achieved.

When Toyota launched a remote opening/lock -up subscription system, it was targeted at new cars after 2018. In 2018 or older models, this function is completely free. The reason why such a fine operation appears is because to subscribe to this function, it must be connected, but the old models can only run under the 3G network, and the 3G network is being abandoned by major operators. For example, the three major American operators plan to eliminate 3G networks this year, which has led to the embarrassing situation of old models facing a unconnected network. Toyota simply gave up this wave of leeks.

On the other hand, there is no such embarrassment in Tesla. Each Tesla car can be connected to the Tesla server, downloaded and updated through OTA, and upgrade casually. Even if the user can temporarily solve the payment function through system vulnerabilities, Tesla can still make up the vulnerability by forcibly upgrading the system, so the user has to cracked again. And this is exactly the lack of traditional car companies.

It is not to say that traditional car companies do not have the ability to upgrade OTA, but because traditional car companies cannot want OTA as OTA like Tesla.

Control the driving status of the car and realize its various functions is the electronic control unit (ECU). In traditional cars, the ECU is not only a large number (tens or even hundreds), but also independent of each other. There may be sixty or seventy electronic black boxes in a car. It runs software from 20 different companies. Any functional upgrade requires multiple suppliers to cooperate with combat. The workload is geometric multiples increase. Therefore, the range of traditional car companies is very limited.

Audi's OTA can only update the map, and even some models have to find dealers to help;

BMW can achieve an information entertainment system and a limited range of advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) upgrade;

Mercedes can only achieve the OTA upgrade of entertainment and navigation;

Honda and Hyundai can only provide a few models with a small number of models and CarPlay OTA upgrades;

Mowing

In this case, the only thing that can be controlled by traditional car companies is only information entertainment. In fact, this is the best for subscribing projects. GM has drove about 16 million cars on the road in the United States, of which about 1/4 of the owners have opened entertainment payment subscriptions.

But Tesla had aimed at the integration of ECU from the beginning, grabbing a large amount of control of ECUs from the supplier's hands, and mastered a unified computer architecture. As a result, Tesla has higher vehicle control capabilities than traditional car companies.

How high is it? In 2019, due to the downtime of the server, the Tesla car owner could not drive; in 2020, the user opened the APP and found that the car was connected by someone else's car. In 2021, due outside. I spent hundreds of thousands of buying cars, can I use it? The owner said no, the car company said it. If Tesla suddenly thinks and the door of the switch is also paid to subscribe, then the owner can only pay for the subscription in addition to going to court.

The car companies are trying to watch Tesla. GAC Weilai even released a word saying that "the comprehensive profit of the hardware is not higher than 1%", which means that all profits must be bet on the software. Regardless of whether the subscription system is a good idea for consumers, it is undoubtedly a good model for car companies.

Welcome to the era of subscribing to support the scene and make money by hardware.

Author ｜ Wu Di

Edit ｜ Hu Zhanjia

Operation ｜ Chen Jiahui

Produced ｜ Zero -state LT (ID: lingtai_lt)

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