Volvo has confirmed it will not charge owners monthly subscriptions for basic features such as heated seats. Instead, fees will only apply to major updates. Speaking to Bloomberg, the Swedish luxury brand's Chief Operating Officer Bjorn Annwall made clear Volvo has no plans to nickel and dime customers.

"If you are to charge for software updates, it must be a step change in consumer benefit," he said. "We will not ask people who have bought a car for one million kronor ($96,500) to pay another 10 kronor to get extra heat in the seat."

Annwall's heated seat example can be traced back to BMW who began charging South Korean customers an $18 monthly subscription for the feature a few months ago. A significant amount of customer blowback was the result.

Mercedes-Benz is also now charging EQS owners $1,200 annually to unlock the EV flagship's full power output. Charging owners for features vehicles were designed from the get-go to have may, in fact, be illegal in several US states but that's still unresolved. Volvo, on the other hand, sees very little additional revenue from software upgrades until mid-decade, at the earliest. Even then, only major upgrades, such as a new self-driving mode, will cost extra.

"You don't have to hold the steering wheel - now that's a step change in user benefit," Annwall added.

The executive further acknowledged the software problems Volvo has had but pointed out that "we've been good at correcting them fairly quickly… [and] a lot of the value is in the software, and we need to have processes in place to assure the software quality."

Volvo remains on course for a fully electrified lineup by the end of the decade. Its most recent pure battery-electric model, the three-row luxury EX90 SUV, will go on sale as a 2024 model later next year. The C60 nameplate was also just recently trademarked, suggesting a possible future EV SUV slotted below the EX90.

Volvo's sister brand, Polestar, announced earlier this month that Polestar 2 owners can unlock an additional 68 horsepower for a one-time fee of $1,195. This only applies to the Long Range Dual Motor variant and it's the first time Polestar's software capabilities were utilized for tuning.

While we don't have any data on how many owners paid for or plan to get the update, there doesn't appear to be any major backlash so far. That's a good sign Polestar and Volvo have the right approach regarding subscriptions in the years ahead.