It’s no secret that Volkswagen plans to make options available over the internet as a sort of app. The brand thinks it can even earn hundreds of millions, says Automotive News.
Making options available on demand represents a major change for both the manufacturer and the driver of a car. It means that you can suddenly link options not only to the car, but also to a personal account. It also means that you can ‘lease’ options instead of selling them, by putting them in a subscription form and making them available temporarily or not.
Volkswagen is one of the manufacturers that sees benefit in that concept. Automotive News reports that in a recent presentation it expressed the expectation to earn hundreds of millions with this concept. The development boss of the brand, Thomas Ulbrich, would also expect that people will attach more and more importance to what is possible with a car in terms of software. According to him, this interest largely replaces the importance of ‘old’ purchasing arguments, such as a high top speed.
The idea of offering options via over-the-air upgrades (not to be confused with updates) is not unique to Volkswagen. However, this brand is already very serious about it. For example, the current Golf always has the buttons and the necessary hardware for, for example, adaptive cruise control, even if the car is not equipped with it at the factory. If you buy a copy with the most advanced LED headlights, you can also have the matrix function of those viewers switched on afterwards and for a fee. In the future, the possibilities in this area will be expanded considerably.