Performance Communications | June 8, 2026
I enjoyed my first visit to FT Future of the Car summit last month, and it got me thinking. While Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) and connected cars were a hot topic, communicating the benefits of these vehicles to consumers isn’t necessarily straightforward.
It’s especially hard when it feels like new tech is simply the enabler for car makers to charge motorists for features they’d ordinarily expect to be included in the price.
Features-Over-The Air (FOTA) sound great in practice but – even after BMW rowed back on its initial ambitions to charge a monthly subscription for features like heated seats following the decidedly cool reaction from media and consumers – there is uncertainty in the industry about how to implement them.
The real benefit is when owners get to experience fresh technologies and features that weren’t even available when they purchased their vehicle – or more pertinently in a world of second-hand cars – when it was first registered. In this way, FOTA has the potential to prolong the lives of cars and give consumers the opportunity to enjoy modern features in their existing vehicle. In this instance, it’s easy to see how manufacturers can justify charging their customers.
The other approach is where FOTA is used to charge new car buyers for features on a subscription basis – and this is where it gets harder for motorists to see the benefits.
Attitudes vary but President and CEO of Volvo Cars, Hakan Samuelsson, was clear in his mind about the way forward. Speaking at the summit, he said: ‘The first job is to make people want your car. Features should be included.’ He noted the exception of adding new features to older cars, but was unequivocal that asking people to pay extra for features will simply restrict access to them.
His view was echoed by Fedra Ribeiro, Executive VP, Executive VP, Member of the Board for ADAS & Compute at Bosch, who was part of a panel discussion about the future of SDVs. She highlighted the average net income across Europe of 28,000 Euros, and the fact cars are only used between two and five per cent of the time. To prove her point, she asked the audience to raise their hands if they had any paid-for apps on their smartphone – which was met with a predictably low response. Why, then, she pondered, do we imagine people will be willing pay for features they’ll use even less frequently?
Ribeiro suggested that monetisation should be done through the total cost of ownership, not by paying for additional subscriptions. ‘I see the total cost of usage of the vehicle reducing and therefore increasing residual values and becoming an interesting proposition for the end user,’ she explained.
You can see the issue here. So called SDVs mean car manufacturers can genuinely describe themselves as tech companies, but developing them isn’t cheap – and the ability to build subscription-based income using the technology is an understandable temptation. The fact many of the benefits are hard for consumers to wrap their heads around doesn’t help so I’m with Samuelsson. Make people want your car – software defined or not.
Ross
