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Vauxhall's new Onstar in-car connectivity technology will be offered free of charge for the first 12 months on much of its range, with exact models to be confirmed before June, when 2016 model year cars fitted with the system will be available for ordering.
The technology, which offers benefits including in-car 4G wifi, a UK-based concierge service that can send navigation destinations direct to the car's system, vehicle diagnostic checks and the ability to alert emergency services in the case of an accident, will arrive in the UK in October.
Vauxhall's UK boss Tim Tozer confirmed to BusinessCar that the new Astra, coming to the UK in Q4 of this year, will be offered with the Onstar system free for the first 12 months on all models, while the rest of the company's passenger car range will vary according to trim level.
"We will offer on selected trim lines as a first step for model year 2016 cars, then step-by-step in quite a big way," he said, declaring that 40% of trim lines on the firm's 2016 range will get the system in place for a year as standard, a figure that will increase as new vehicles are introduced.
The new Viva, Vauxhall's new entry-level city car, will get Onstar as standard on the higher of its two trim levels, while other models will vary. "Insignia will be much higher than Corsa in percentage of the trim line that get it as standard," Tozer continued, putting a figure of "at least" 60% of Insignias having Onstar as standard, compared to 20%-30% of Corsas, though he said these details are still being worked out.
It is though thought that the fleet-specific Tech Line trim on Insignia should fall the standard side of the split, though Tozer wouldn't confirm this. Pricing at the end of the first year, whether there will be one package or a graded range of options, and the option price of fitting the system if it is not standard are all elements currently under discussion.
It's also as-yet unclear whether the hardware will be fitted to every vehicle, and not activated if the trim level doesn't get it and the customer doesn't select it as an option. This would allow second owners to subscribe, even if the first owner declined to do so, something Toxer said could be important in RV terms to rental companies defleeting fairly new models where second buyers are keen on some or all of the benefits.
"Overall we want to democratise the technology, it has previously only been available in one or two luxury brands," said Tozer. "This is coming at such a pace that we haven't engaged in detailed conversation with fleet operators and lease companies to get their opinions."
"We are doing this because we want to be a service provider more than we are today," said GM's European boss Karl-Thomas Neumann. "We want to control the pipeline to the car; people have other pipelines to the car, that is the smartphone, and we can't prevent that but we can compete with it."
Neumann argued that the Onstar system trumps other new technology that replicates the smartphone's display on a screen, because it prevents viewing sites and services, such as social media, that can be distracting.
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