Mercedes-Benz Wants You to Pay to Drive Faster

If you gotta go quick, Mercedes-Benz says you gotta cough up some extra dough. The German automotive producer has unveiled a brand new characteristic known as “Acceleration Increase,” which is able to enhance your automotive’s capacity to speed up (get it?) however it’ll value you $1,200 yearly.

Drivers behind the wheel of a Mercedes-EQ—the corporate’s totally electrical automotive line—can enroll within the Acceleration Increase from Mercedes-Benz, which may allegedly shave off 1 second out of your acceleration time from 0-to-60 miles per hour. The new characteristic is extra particularly accessible for Mercedes-EQ EQS and EQE automobiles and can enhance the electrical motor’s output from 215 kilowatts to 260 kilowatts for EQE fashions and 265 kilowatts to 330 kilowatts for EQS fashions.

“The feeling of driving your Mercedes-EQ is a new experience every day – particularly its powerful, immediate acceleration,” Mercedes writes on its website. “Acceleration Increase boosts this performance even further: electronically increasing the motor’s output also increases the torque significantly, giving you a faster 0-to-60 MPH time. Acceleration power you can feel.”

How enjoyable. Acceleration Increase is just “coming soon” in response to Mercedes-Benz and whereas the value breaks all the way down to $100 per 30 days, the characteristic can solely be bought in a single, annual price of $1,200. As The Verge reviews, the improve doesn’t really change any of the {hardware} on the automotive, as a substitute it unlocks extra of motor’s capacity, which may insinuate that Mercedes was throttling the the complete potential of the automobiles with a view to promote this improve.

To the typical driver, an additional second of acceleration won’t be the most important deal, however it does level to a broader development in subscription-based automotive microtransactions. Earlier this summer time, BMW introduced that it will be charging a recurring fee for heated seats, amounting to $18 per 30 days, $180 per 12 months, or an enormous $415 for limitless entry.