BMW reverses controversial subscription fee for Apple CarPlay



BMW announced in July that there will be a subscription fee for the use of Apple CarPlay in their vehicles, to the dismay of many consumers. Now just a little over four months after the announcement, Autocar UK reported that BMW has reversed the controversial decision in the UK. 

We reached out to a BMW Malaysia spokesperson, who has confirmed that this change will be applicable worldwide, and will therefore include Malaysia. The update will happen in stages, and there are no exact timeline for our market other than “by the year end to early next year”. 

The service previously required a fee of RM513 per year.

BMW has previously cited the complexity of implementing wireless Apple CarPlay as the reason for the charge, but BMW Malaysia has assured that this functionality will still be available to customers after the change.

No refunds will be provided to existing paying customers of the service. However, according to the BMW Malaysia spokesperson, most of their customers have yet to pay for the use of Apple CarPlay, due to the six-months free trial on every new car purchase. The customers will not be required to pay a fee for Apple CarPlay once their free trial expires. 

The subscription fee was initially introduced with the brand’s iDrive 7.0 operating system.

On a side note, Android smartphone users are still out of luck, as BMW Malaysia has noted that there are currently no projected time frame for the implementation of Android Auto in their cars. BMW has previously said that they expect to equip their new models with the feature within the year.