Recently, car companies such as BYD, Xiaopeng, and Ideal have raised the prices of high-end intelligent driving optional packages, with the increase generally exceeding 2000 yuan. This collective price adjustment marks the comprehensive entry of intelligent vehicles into a new stage of feature payment and service monetization. With the implementation of "software defined cars" from an industry concept to a normalized application, software services such as OTA remote upgrades, intelligent driving, and in car ecosystem subscriptions have broken the traditional consumption model of "one-time purchase, lifelong use", allowing car companies to break free from hardware profit limitations and open up a new long-term path for increasing revenue. However, in this process, industry chaos has emerged, with frequent issues such as secondary charging for hardware pre installation, disguised locking of basic functions, and vague and chaotic charging standards, constantly triggering consumer disputes. How to clarify the legal boundaries of payment for automotive functions, balance the commercial profits of car companies with the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and promote the industry to bid farewell to wild growth has become the core issue for the high-quality development of the current intelligent automotive industry.

The underlying logic behind the rise of paid subscription models for automotive functions

The rise of the payment model for automotive functions is not a one-sided profit driven speculation by car companies, but an inevitable result of the combination of three factors: product value reconstruction, business model evolution, and technological iteration and upgrading. It is the core trend of the transformation of the automotive industry in the intelligent era. For traditional cars, the core values are concentrated in hardware configurations such as engines, transmissions, and chassis. Product differences and brand premiums are determined by hardware, and car companies' profits are entirely dependent on vehicle sales and after-sales maintenance. But under the wave of intelligence, cars have upgraded from traditional transportation to "mobile intelligent terminals". The core demand of consumers when buying a car is no longer simply for commuting functions, but for intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, car to machine connectivity, ecological services and other intelligent experiences. At the same time, traditional vehicle sales profits continue to compress, and "selling cars without making money" has become the norm in the industry. According to Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the China Automobile Dealers Association Passenger Union Branch, from January to March 2026, the total profit of the domestic automobile industry was 78.4 billion yuan, and the sales profit margin dropped to 3.2%, which is at a low level in recent years. In contrast, the gross profit margin of software subscription services generally exceeds 60% and can bring stable cash flow, becoming a new profit growth point for car companies. Taking Tesla as an example, according to its 2025 financial report, its global FSD subscription users have exceeded 5 million, contributing over $12 billion in revenue and a gross profit margin of up to 70%, while Tesla's overall vehicle business gross profit margin during the same period was only 23%. According to the Global Market Insights report, the global automotive software market is expected to reach $19.8 billion and the ADAS subscription market is expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2025. It is projected to increase to $56.5 billion and $7.5 billion respectively by 2035, with compound annual growth rates of 11.1% and 19.1%, respectively. The essence of enterprise profit driven business model iteration and upgrading, the traditional one-time profit model of "selling cars to earn price differences" can no longer cover the long-term technology research and service costs of intelligent vehicles. The model of "hardware embedding+software subscription" perfectly solves this pain point and achieves a commercial closed loop of "one-time hardware investment and long-term sustainable income" for car companies. In addition, upgrading the vehicle technology system to a paid model provides solid support. With the comprehensive popularization of centralized electronic and electrical architecture in intelligent vehicles, the technical limitations of traditional distributed architecture have been completely broken, and the decoupling of vehicle software and hardware has been achieved, enabling vehicles to have the ability of global OTA remote upgrade. After the vehicle is delivered to the user, the car company can remotely update the car system, optimize driving algorithms, and add in car functions through the cloud backend, which has continuous service value and iteration space, making software service payment reasonable and feasible.

Chaos abound: Unreasonable payment models overdraw industry trust

Under the dividends of industrial transformation, some car companies are eager to reap the market dividends, abuse their software permission control capabilities, confuse the boundaries between "basic hardware functions" and "value-added software services", and give rise to a series of unreasonable payment chaos. The most classic case of controversy is undoubtedly the BMW seat heating subscription incident. In 2022, BMW will launch seat heating and steering wheel heating subscription services in multiple global markets, requiring monthly subscription fees of several hundred yuan. Once this model was launched, it immediately sparked a collective boycott from car owners around the world, and was criticized by consumers as having to rent a feature when buying a car. Under pressure from public opinion, BMW ultimately completely suspended the subscription service. The Mercedes Benz rear wheel steering payment incident, which followed closely behind, once again pushed the chaos of car function payment into the public opinion. The Mercedes Benz EQS pure electric flagship model comes standard with a 10 degree rear wheel steering hardware structure across the entire range, but due to software restrictions, the vehicle defaults to only offering a 4.5 degree rear wheel steering function. If consumers want to unlock the full hardware performance, they need to pay an annual subscription fee of 16000 yuan or purchase the function at once. The excessive commercialization harvest led to a significant decline in brand reputation, and Mercedes Benz was ultimately forced to cancel the subscription policy. Recently, the issue of charging for the permission to open the front trunk of Ford electric vehicle models has pushed the chaos in the industry to a new dimension. The front trunk, as the basic storage structure, relies on pure mechanical structure and fixed circuit control, which is the inherent basic function of vehicles. But Ford has set up software to lock the front trunk opening permissions for some models, requiring consumers to pay to unlock basic usage permissions. This kind of rigid charging without any value-added services completely breaks through consumers' cognitive bottom line. In addition, several car companies have included basic functions such as in car ETC activation, microphone free karaoke, seat massage zoning, and remote start in their payment list. Liu Junhai, Vice President of the China Consumers Association, bluntly stated that such behavior violates the spirit of the contract and is suspected of infringing on consumers' right to know and fair trade. At present, the chaos of functional payment has become a major disaster area for automobile consumption disputes, seriously overdrawing the trust between the industry and consumers.

Clarify the boundary: clarify the payment red line to distinguish between reasonable value-added and illegal charges

It should be clarified that the payment model for automotive functions itself conforms to the development laws of the intelligent automotive industry and is not the root of industry chaos. The core of current public opinion controversy has never been "whether functions can be paid for", but "which functions can be paid for and which functions absolutely cannot be paid for". Clarifying the boundaries of their rights and responsibilities, distinguishing between reasonable value-added services and illegal hardware fees, is the core key to regulating the development of the industry. From the perspective of industry logic and consumer fairness, software value-added services that can continue to iterate have reasonable payment. Firstly, advanced intelligent driving services, including urban navigation assistance, full scenario intelligent avoidance, automatic parking and other functions, require massive cloud data training, continuous algorithm iteration, and 7 × 24-hour backend operation and maintenance, with extremely high technical investment costs. The payment models for advanced intelligent driving services such as Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving ADS, Tesla FSD, and Xiaopeng XNGP are all reasonable. Taking Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving as an example, as of April 2026, the cumulative mileage of assisted driving has exceeded 10.2 billion kilometers. Huawei's investment in intelligent driving will exceed 10 billion yuan in 2024 and 2025, and it is expected that research and development investment will exceed 18 billion yuan in 2026. Secondly, sustainable content and ecological services, including in car audio and video, exclusive music membership, in car games, customized car themes, exclusive traffic packages, etc. These services rely on copyright content updates and backend ecological operation and maintenance, with continuous value-added attributes. Consumers can voluntarily subscribe according to their own needs, and the charging model is reasonable and compliant. Thirdly, personalized performance optimization services, such as power response upgrades and chassis mode optimization achieved through software tuning, do not affect driving safety and belong to differentiated value-added services that can be reasonably priced and charged. Previously, Volkswagen launched a paid performance upgrade service for the ID.3 Pro and Pro S models in the UK market, costing £ 16.5 per month, instantly transforming the originally 201Ps car into a 228Ps performance version, with torque skyrocketing from 265N · m to 310N · m. Relatively speaking, basic functions that rely on fixed hardware, factory logic solidification, and lack continuous iteration value should not be subject to secondary charges. Functions such as seat heating, steering wheel heating, front trunk opening, and basic remote control of the car all belong to this category. The hardware devices, control circuits, and underlying software logic for these functions are completely fixed at the time of vehicle manufacturing, without the need for cloud operation, algorithm updates, and content iterations. The hardware cost is already 100% included in the overall vehicle price, and consumers have already paid the full price when purchasing the car. The subsequent use of software locking functions and charging unlocking fees by car companies essentially involves leasing and reselling hardware that has already been sold, which is a typical unreasonable charge. At present, many consumer disputes caused by paid subscriptions for car functions have been highly valued by regulators. In early 2026, the "Compliance Guidelines for Price Behavior in the Automotive Industry" guided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was officially released, which imposes rigid constraints on the "paid unlock" model: car companies must clearly disclose the list of paid functions, free periods, and charging standards in the sales process, and strictly prohibit vague propaganda to induce car purchases. At the same time, the document explicitly prohibits "loss making sales" aimed at excluding competitors to avoid vicious price wars. Although the guide is not specifically tailored for software subscriptions, it sets out for the first time a clear red line for charging for automotive features from a pricing compliance perspective.

Multi party collaboration: jointly building a new ecosystem of intelligent car payment

汽车功能付费模式的规范化发展，无法依靠单一主体发力，需要车企、监管部门、消费者三方协同、各司其职，构建良性行业生态。

对于车企而言，作为行业主体，必须坚守商业底线，摒弃短期逐利思维。要严格遵循“硬件归硬件、服务归服务”的核心原则，彻底放弃硬件预装锁闭、基础功能二次收费的投机操作。建议推行“基础功能永久免费+增值服务按需订阅”的分层模式，兼顾企业盈利需求与用户消费体To enhance user willingness to pay and brand reputation through high-quality services. For the regulatory level, it is necessary to continuously refine rules and strengthen regulatory enforcement. Firstly, it is necessary to clearly classify the vehicle's functional categories, clarify which are standard basic functions and which belong to paid value-added functions, clarify the scope of safety core functions, and fill in industry rule loopholes. Secondly, we will strengthen market inspections, strictly investigate and punish illegal practices such as false advertising, hidden charges, forced subscriptions, and disguised price increases, and hold violators accountable. Consumers need to proactively clarify their own rights and rationally respond to the feature payment model. Proactively verify the vehicle's standard configuration list, post payment items, and rules when purchasing a car, and retain sales promotion, communication records, and other vouchers; Rationally distinguish between basic hardware functions and value-added services, recognize the paid value of continuous iterative services, and firmly resist unreasonable secondary charges; When encountering illegal charges or damage to rights and interests, proactively file complaints and rights protection with regulatory authorities or third-party complaint platforms in a reasonable and legal manner.

Summary:

 Payment for automotive features is an inevitable trend in the industry's technological upgrading and business model iteration, as well as an important manifestation of "software defined cars" and the industry's move towards high-quality development. Payment itself is not right or wrong, unclear boundaries and excessive pursuit of profits are the root of chaos. In the future, it is necessary for car companies to operate in compliance, regulatory departments to refine control, and consumers to supervise rationally. The three parties should work together to rectify the chaos in the industry, promote the transparency, standardization, and sustainability of the car function payment model, and promote the stable and sustainable development of the intelligent car industry.