“Customers want more functions on demand,” says Audi. We don’t believe that…

Car buyers would like to be able to pay for functions later on demand, claims Audi Tech boss Oliver Hoffmann. The fact that these options generate a lot of sales is just an additional advantage, he says.

It’s election time and television and radio are full of debates. A well-known trick used by politicians is to invent ordinary people they claim to have spoken to. This is intended to show: “Hey, I know what’s going on with Henk and Ingrid.”

Trump’s “big strong guy”

Donald Trump is a funny (and sad) example of this. In almost every speech he speaks of a “big, strong guy‘. Someone who would have thanked him for his leadership with tears in their eyes. Yes, exactly!

On-demand features popular?

We now suspect Oliver Hoffmann of similar practices. According to Audi’s head of technology, it is the customers who want more functions if necessary. And this is how the manufacturer wants to give it to them.

The range of on-demand functions will therefore be expanded in future Audis. This is not an easy way to increase sales, says Hoffmann, but rather a response to demand.

For example, Audi drivers can retrofit high beam assistant, adaptive cruise control, digital radio, matrix LED headlights, parking assistant and navigation plus digital.

Criticism of on-demand functions

BMW received a lot of criticism last year for its on-demand functions. The brand recently announced that it would discontinue certain subscriptions such as heated seats and heated steering wheel.

BMW still offers on-demand options, but only software-related. The subscriptions for seat and steering wheel heating caused a lot of excitement. After all, the hardware for this was already physically in the car. Customers had to pay extra to activate it, so they were actually paying for something they already had.

As much as manufacturers claim that such a subscription model has advantages for the buyer, it seems above all to be a new way to continue making money with a car that has already left the showroom.