It’s time once again to talk about possibly the most hated thing in the entire automotive industry: subscription-based features. While some are useful, there’s something irksome about paying five or even six figures for a new car, only for automakers to ask if you want to pay a separate monthly fee to use certain connected services. However, it seems like drivers are starting to push back.
As a recent S&P Global Mobility study states (bold ours):
Subscription-based services (navigation, Wi-Fi, etc.) are increasingly being met with resistance from price-sensitive consumers who may not see the value in paying recurring fees for features they do not frequently use. Users are frustrated when hardware (e.g., cameras, sensors) is present but features are paywalled. Consumers are also pushing back against “feature fragmentation” where basic functions are split into multiple paid tiers.
As with anything in a major industry, people study in-car subscription services, and some of those people work for S&P Global Mobility. The data firm takes a closer look at how consumers are viewing and using connected services every year to quantify desirability, price sensitivity, and other factors useful for product planning. From S&P:
S&P Global Mobility conducts an annual survey to understand automotive industry trends in consumer sentiment toward connected car services. By asking vehicle owners of certain model years a series of questions to gauge activation decisions, subscription lengths and costs, feature desirability and willingness to pay, we develop the “Feature Desirability & Willingness to Pay” indices, along with activation rates.
Through statistical analysis and machine learning, analysts extract key factors and weights (coefficients) that explain an application’s feature desirability score and how much consumers are willing to pay.
According to this latest 2025 edition of the study, consumer sentiment toward paid connected services — which were meant to be gold mines for automakers — took a significant turn over the past year, signifying that more drivers don’t want to be juiced after they roll off the lot.
Connected services are not necessarily a primary consideration when purchasing new vehicles, so technology-oriented customers may be more proactive and intentionally seek out these services directly from the dealer or buy online. However, the number of respondents who would pay for connected services has significantly decreased, from 86% in 2024 to 68% in 2025.
That sort of drop in one year is precipitous, but also unsurprising. Not only has online backlash to paid subscription features been swift, paid connected services are easy subscriptions for many belt-tightening consumers to cut as most telematics packages consist largely of non-essential features like in-car Wi-Fi and concierge services. Granted, some telematic services can be useful, like stolen vehicle tracking and some advanced driver assistance features that require an active internet connection, but having those features frequently bundled with less essential operations feels like a questionable deal. Plus, consumers are starting to see less enjoyment from these subscription services, as per the study.
Once consumers experience connected car services, they are generally satisfied and likely to recommend them to others. That said, consumers have shown declining satisfaction levels in nearly all connected car services categories over the past two to three years.
Could part of the decline in satisfaction be due to the 3G sunset of 2022 cutting off services to many connected cars, or recent instances like Honda and Acura sunsetting connected features on some models as new as the 2021 model year? S&P Global doesn’t say, but it wouldn’t be surprising if these experiences left a bad taste in drivers’ mouths. Unsurprisingly, data privacy concerns may also play a role in reducing consumer demand, as drivers have a right to be concerned about what automakers do with their data.
Data privacy has been the biggest industry concern as automakers seek recurring revenue and monetization opportunities. Consumers are wary of how their driving data (location, habits, etc.) is being collected, stored, and used, especially given the potential for misuse or unauthorized access. Lack of transparency in data policies has been proven to reduce consumer trust, especially among privacy-conscious users.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on how much it sucks to manage subscriptions. If they aren’t on auto-renew, the service could drop out. If they are on auto-renew, that’s another bite taken out of your credit card. Want to cancel? That’s tedious, and in some cases, unnecessarily difficult. With everything from music to movies to fitness to shared spaces seemingly being subscription-based now, people are tired. A subscription for car features is the last thing many of us need on our plates.
Despite this decline in desirability for connected services, automakers won’t stop trying to make money from drivers beyond the initial purchase so long as they’re seeing a take rate that’s worth the expense of supporting these features. So, what sort of take rates are we actually looking at for paid connected services?
According to the study, 35 percent of American respondents with connected cars report paying for connected services, although the sample size of 1,000 American respondents is quite small. Still, the United States leads the study when it comes to the share of respondents with active paid subscription services, with the figure falling to 33 percent in India, 32 percent in mainland China, 30 percent in Korea, 29 percent in both Brazil and the United Kingdom, and 25 percent in Germany. Japan and France are coolest to paid telematics, with just 18 percent of Japanese respondents and 19 percent of French respondents having active paid subscription services.
What happens if those take rates fall further? It’s tough to make any predictions beyond declining revenue for automakers. With nearly all modern cars being over-the-air updatable and feature internet connections capable of remedying certain software-related recalls and adding new features, some level of connected services support will always exist. However, it’s possible some of the paid subscription features end up falling off the face of the earth, should they become unprofitable to offer.
Top graphic credit: Subaru
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