Mercedes-Benz offers an online subscription service in the US to make its electric cars faster.
For an annual cost of $1,200 (£991) excluding tax, the company will enable some of its vehicles to accelerate from 0 to 60mph faster.
It comes after rival manufacturer BMW offered a subscription feature earlier this year – for heated seats.
Mercedes has confirmed to BBC News that it currently has no plans to introduce Acceleration Increase in the UK.
It will be available in the US on Mercedes-EQ EQE 350 and EQS 450 vehicles and their SUV counterparts.
According to the Mercedes US online store, the feature “electronically” increases both the power of the car’s engine and torque.
All in all, that amounts to a 20-24% increase in performance, allowing a Mercedes-EQ 350 SUV to accelerate from 0-60mph in around 5.2 seconds, as opposed to 6.2 seconds without the subscription.
Jack McKeown, President of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers and Writer of the Courier newspaper in Dundee, said the new Mercedes feature was “not surprising, but discouraging”.
“When you pay a monthly subscription for a phone or broadband, you’re paying for the company to provide and maintain a data network,” he said.
“Mercedes is asking you to pay for hardware that they already put in the car – and presumably already made a profit on when they bought the car.
“Trying to squeeze even more profit from subscription services is a worrying trend and I hope there is a consumer backlash against it.”
In July, BMW faced backlash when it announced customers could pay £25 a month to unlock heated seats and steering wheels in their cars.
And in December 2021, Toyota announced it would charge some drivers $8 a month to remotely start their cars with a key fob.
In 2019, Tesla introduced “Acceleration Boost,” which allows its Model 3 vehicles to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph half a second faster for a one-time fee of $2,000.
The Acceleration Boost Subscription is listed as “coming soon” on the US Mercedes storefront, with no specific date given for its release.
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