The idea was to offer customers the option to activate this feature later, but the move backfired and has been scrapped before making it to a second winter.

Pieter Nota, BMW’s board member for sales and marketing, told Autocar: “We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high.

“People feel that they paid double – which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that.”

Instead of charging for hardware features, BMW plans to shift its focus towards monetising software-based services, such as driving and parking assistance. Mr Nota likened this to paying for additional features in apps or downloading movies, suggesting it’s a more accepted practice among consumers.