Mercedes Will Make Your EV Quicker . . . If You Pay $1200 a Year

Mercedes will soon let owners of its electric EQ models unlock quicker acceleration as part of a $1200-plus annual subscription, as first reported by The Drive.Purchased through “Mercedes me connect” services, the subscription is said to drop zero-to-60-mph times by as much as a full second. The subscription also increases the max output from the electric motors by between 60 and 87 horsepower, depending on the model.

Improved performance always has a price when it comes to new cars, whether it’s shelling out extra money for a mightier engine option or paying a yearly fee to hit 60 mph a second sooner. Wait, what? That’s right, Mercedes will soon offer an annual subscription to owners of its electric EQ models that lets them unlock additional power and quicker acceleration. It only costs $1200 plus tax. Every year. Welcome to the future.

The practice of automakers instituting a subscription model for popular features has been a growing trend. It’s largely a byproduct of more and more new cars utilizing technology that allows over-the-air updates. Of course, charging consumers monthly or yearly subscription fees for content that is otherwise standard can tick people off, as BMW learned the hard way with its Apple CarPlay snafu.

Still, these on-demand options don’t appear to be going away anytime soon, and everyone will likely have an opinion on Mercedes’s soon-to-be-released “Acceleration Increase,” which is currently listed on the company’s online store.

So, what exactly does Mercedes’ $1200-plus-per-year performance upgrade get you? Depending on the model, it’s said to reduce the EV’s zero-to-60-mph time between 0.8 and 1.0 second. The only models the company lists are the all-wheel-drive EQE350 4Matic and EQS450 4Matic in both sedan and SUV configurations.

Along with quicker acceleration, Mercedes says the Acceleration Increase package increases the maximum output of the electric motors. Along with more torque, the EQE350 models gain 60 horsepower (349 total), and EQS450 models add 87 horsepower (443 total).

It’s currently not clear if the subscription-based performance upgrade is available on models other than the sedan and SUV versions of the EQE350 and EQS450. The Mercedes site also doesn’t state when the feature can be purchased and activated and whether or not it simply requires an over-the-air software update or something hardware-related that owners will need to have a dealer handle.

We reached out to Mercedes directly for clarification, and we’ll update this story once we hear back.

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