BMW has been supporting Apple CarPlay for a bit of time, and it has typically charged a hefty up-front fee to include it.
But that will be changing soon. The Verge has revealed that beginning next year, BMW will be changing its payment model for including CarPlay in its vehicle fleet. Instead of charging the up-front $300 add-on price to include the infotainment option, it will instead charge $80 per year.
“This allows the customer to switch devices,” he said. “A lot of people buy [CarPlay] and think it’s okay, but sometimes they stop using it or switch to Android.”
BMW’s Don Smith, who confirmed the change, said that the first year of CarPlay support would be free. After that, the $80 per year payment would kick in. Smith did say, though, that even with a four-year ownership plan, this payment breakdown would mean the cost would still be cheaper than the previous $300 up-front method. (Because the first year is free.)
There is no specific date for when this will kick in, but BMW did confirm it will be in effect sometime in 2019.
Our Take
The silver lining here, if there is one, is that BMW is reducing the overall cost of adding CarPlay support into their vehicles. The fact that, up until next year, it cost $300 just to get the feature added in is pretty crazy to think about. Especially considering other manufacturers aren’t charging that sort of premium to get the infotainment option. This is BMW we’re talking about, though, so perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising.
[Source The Verge]
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