Automakers have high hopes of generating substantial revenue from owners keen to pay for the latest information and services delivered remotely to their vehicles. The question is: Are the services worth paying extra for?
Automakers have lofty ambitions.
Daimler said last October it wanted to generate 1 billion euros in profit annually from connectivity by 2025. Income will grow as it increases the number of connected cars it has on the road to 20 million by 2025 from 5 million now.
"We don't want a brief fleeting moment when we sell a car. We want customers to stay with us, ideally for life," Britta Seeger, head of sales and marketing, told investors.
The Volkswagen brand, meanwhile, wants 1 billion euros in revenue from connected vehicles by 2025.
Like most automakers, VW Group subsidiary Skoda has offered connectivity services, branded Skoda Connect, for a while.
The opportunities to benefit from this, however, become much more interesting in cars such as the new Octavia, which add new features or improve current ones remotely via over-the-air updates.
Skoda connectivity features need to offer more 'must-have' allure
The MySkoda app offers access to all the mobile online services of Skoda Connect. It also provides useful information about the vehicle such as whether it is locked (inset, right).
I have just leased a new fourth-generation Octavia station wagon and was keen to find out what new connectivity experiences it offers.
First of all, Skoda Connect and the mobile phone app, called Care Connect, are both free for a year. The idea is that owners will find them indispensable and choose to pay annually after that.
The current cost for a year of Skoda Connect is 44 pounds ($61 or 50 euros) and 33 pounds for Care Connect, both of which are much cheaper than the 63 pounds and 53 pounds charged, respectively, in 2018. That suggests demand hasn't been high.
Skoda told me that "between 20 and 70 percent" of eligible customers in Europe renewed their subscriptions. The company declined to provide a more detailed breakdown.
So, will I renew in a year's time? It's hard to say.
The Skoda Connect online services offered to me includes traffic information, map updates and voice control. The navigation system also shows the nearest fuel stations and provides their opening times.
Not bad, but there's nothing that isn't already covered by my iPhone, which connects seamlessly to the car's screen via Bluetooth using CarPlay.
Care Connect is potentially more interesting. I have downloaded the MySkoda app that connects to the car and I'm enjoying accessing journey data such as average speed and fuel economy. It's also useful to know that the car is locked, while the parking location will be useful once this current lockdown in the UK ends.
Care Connect, however, isn't perfect. Sometimes it's offline completely and other times it gives me wrong information, for example, warning me the parking lights were on when they weren't.
The one really useful Care Connect function is the ability to remotely lock and unlock.
Unfortunately, this isn't available on my Octavia because it was built before the feature could be added, according to the customer service advisor I spoke to. It's available on later cars, she said.
Connected apps are perhaps only really useful to electric car owners, who can use them to pre-warm their car or pre-set charging times to take advantage of cheaper electricity.
The shopping feature might become interesting, but right now there's nothing of interest there to me (it's tailored to your specific model).
This is where I will be able to renew Skoda Connect or Care Connect when my subscription ends.
I can also pay for a data plan to turn the car into a WiFi hotspot, but that looks expensive at just under 100 pounds for a year when our phones already offer that function.
Owners of higher-spec cars can buy "additional ambient light colors" for 50 euros, two Skoda owners confirmed on the Briskoda forum. They, however, laughed at the idea of paying for this.
"No way I'm giving 50 euros for that," an Octavia owner based in Slovenia posted.
"How many more colors can you need?" another asked.
Another owner said they were offered high-beam assist, an upgrade that would give their car the ability to automatically switch to low beams. However, the owner, based in Scotland, said that "since the last software update at the dealer [those choices] have all disappeared."
Skoda has also promised online something called "Marketplace." This is where owners will be offered "in-car coupons for discounts" at places such as cafes or fuel stations, but there is no sign of it my car.
Right now, the connectivity based on my experience feels very much like a work in progress. The connection is patchy, the benefits are dubious compared with those available on my iPhone, and the service options are limited.
There are use cases that sound viable. For example, General Motors in the U.S. will charge users of its latest Super Cruise hands-free driving function $25 a month to update their incredibly detailed maps, which help make the semi-autonomous function possible.
The aforementioned app for EV drivers wanting to pre-warm their car also seems worth paying for.
However, it feels like there is a very long way to go before this is a billion-euro business.
