Not directed at OP, but just in general about this story, but for the number of times I feel I’ve seen this story posted in the last few days, I have some critiques and additional info that doesn’t seem provided by these articles being shared. For anyone else curious:

This appears to be old news. I don’t follow electric cars because I live in a NIMBY complex where we will not be having means to have any kind of charging in the foreseeable future. Looking this up to see what exactly is being paywalled by VW, I see forum posts from at least as far back as last August.

What is being limited is the electric motor. Basic is 150 kW, the optional is 170 kw of power. People on the id3 forums say this is essentially taking the car from the electric version of 205 HP to 231 HP.

You can do a one month free trial, an annual subscription, or a lifetime purchase, but I didn’t see if this was tied to the purchaser or the car itself. I’m not in UK so I don’t care enough to look that up.

People on the forum are also saying some leases bar the upgrade and that the insurers there wish to know if the car is “upgraded” and there is a slight premium for having it, so some may wish to forgo the added power rating and associated fees and premiums.

I have no real opinion as I have no skin in the EV game, but I am generally anti-subscription, especially for what sounds like a software setting.

I hope this helps anyone else trying to see what this story is all about. Again, no shade on the people sharing this, I just wish some articles/posts would have a little more context for those less familiar as this community is generalist and not a car/EV one where we should probably expectedly be more versed in the topic.