EV Connected Services Cost in Australia: What Every Brand Charges After the Free Period

EV connected services cost nothing for the first one to seven years on most electric cars sold in Australia, depending on the brand. After that, only a few brands have said what they’ll charge. Tesla is the clear exception: its Premium Connectivity plan costs $13.99 a month as of November 2026, and the free trial on a new car is short. Hyundai and Kia give five to seven years free. MG, BYD and GWM give one to two years and haven’t published a price for what comes next.

Connected services are the features that rely on a SIM card built into the car: the phone app that pre-cools the cabin or shows charge level, live traffic on the map, music streaming, and remote unlock. Most EV buyers never check how long these stay free. Then the free period ends and a feature they use every day stops working.

This guide lists what each brand includes, how long it lasts, and what you can do to avoid paying. For the bigger picture on what an EV costs to run, our EV total cost of ownership guide covers charging, servicing, insurance and depreciation.

EV connected services cost by brand

The table below shows the free period and the published price after it, as of November 2026. Most brands haven’t set a price yet. “Not published” means exactly that, and you should expect a price once the first cars come off their free period.

Brand	Free period on a new car	Price after free period
Tesla (Premium)	Short trial	$13.99/month
Tesla (Standard)	8 years from first delivery	Not published
Hyundai Bluelink	5 years, or 7 with qualifying servicing	Not published
Kia Connect	7 years from warranty start	Not published
MG iSMART	12 months	MG quoted $50/year in 2023; none charged yet
BYD app	About 2 years for SIM features	Not published
GWM app	24 months, first owner only	Not published
Geely EX5	2 years	Not published
Leapmotor C10	3 years	Not published
Polestar 2	1 to 3 years, by model year	Not published
Volkswagen (Goconnect)	5 years	Not yet finalised
Toyota bZ4X	12 months of all plans; Essentials free for good	$9.95 or $12.50/month at 2022 launch
Skoda (Elroq, Enyaq)	No connected services in Australia	n/a

Two patterns stand out. Korean brands give the longest free runs, and Kia’s seven years covers most people’s whole time with the car. Chinese brands mostly give one to two years, which means owners of 2024 cars are already reaching the end. So far, though, we found no reports of Australian owners being asked to pay.

Prices in the table are as of November 2026. Several are old launch figures, so confirm in the brand’s app before you subscribe.

Tesla: the only brand charging today

Tesla is the brand most owners actually pay, because its free trial is brief and its best features sit behind the paid tier. Premium Connectivity rose from $9.99 to $13.99 a month on 10 November 2025, a 40% increase. Tesla’s vice president of finance said the change was mainly to cover costs. The plan first launched in Australia in 2020 at $16.99 and was cut to $9.99 within a week after owners complained.

Premium adds everything over the car’s own mobile connection: the live traffic overlay on the map, satellite map view, music and video streaming, and the internet browser. Tesla’s Australian connectivity page lists the price and compares the two tiers.

Standard Connectivity is the free tier. It covers basic maps and navigation, including traffic-based routing and live Supercharger stall availability, plus Bluetooth audio and over-the-air updates. Tesla includes Standard free for eight years from first delivery. It hasn’t said what it will cost after that.

What does Premium cost over the life of a car? At $13.99 a month you pay about $168 a year, or roughly $840 over five years. Whether that’s worth it depends on how much you stream in the car and how much you like seeing traffic on the map.

Plenty of owners skip it. Standard already works over Wi-Fi, so a Tesla tethered to a phone hotspot can use most internet features without Premium. Satellite maps and the live traffic overlay still need the subscription.

Hyundai and Kia: long free periods, no price yet

Hyundai and Kia offer the most generous terms in Australia. Neither has said what owners will pay afterwards.

Hyundai’s Bluelink is free for five years from first registration. That becomes seven years if the car is serviced on schedule under Hyundai’s seven-year warranty conditions. The free period stays with the car when you sell it, which helps resale. Hyundai’s terms say “fees and charges may apply” after the free period, without a figure.

Kia Connect gives seven years from the start of the warranty. That clock doesn’t reset for a second owner, so a three-year-old used EV6 or EV5 has four years left. Kia will notify owners before the free period ends. When it launched, Kia Australia openly said it had seven years to work out pricing.

Both run on the Optus 4G network. That matters if you live somewhere Optus coverage is patchy, because remote commands from the app depend on the car being able to reach the network where it’s parked.

MG, BYD, GWM and the other Chinese brands

Most Chinese brands give one to two years of free connectivity. We found no case of one charging Australian owners yet.

MG’s iSMART page says the service is free for 12 months from the purchase of a new car. After that, MG “may introduce” charges with at least 60 days’ notice. At the MG4 launch in late 2023, MG said the fee would be about $50 a year. CarExpert reported in April 2025 that no Australian owner had been asked to pay. iSMART uses a Vodafone SIM, so it struggles in rural areas.

BYD’s app has been free since it launched in Australia in March 2023. Early reviews said SIM-based features like streaming were free for two years, and BYD hasn’t announced a fee. GWM’s app terms give the first owner 24 months, starting from the purchase date if you don’t activate it within a month. Geely includes two years on the EX5. Leapmotor includes three years on the C10 and says navigation, voice control and over-the-air updates keep working without the data plan.

Polestar is unclear. Its Australian internet FAQ says three years for the Polestar 2, while the 2026 owner’s manual says one year. Newer cars probably get less, but Polestar hasn’t confirmed it. Either way, Polestar says connected services stop if you don’t renew.

European brands: subscriptions for features you already own

European brands have gone furthest with paid add-ons, and that has caused the most anger. In 2022 BMW Australia’s online store briefly listed heated seats at $29 a month and a heated steering wheel at $19 a month. BMW then said the listings weren’t correct and pulled them. The hardware was already in the car. Owners were being asked to rent it.

Mercedes-Benz gives some Digital Extras free for up to three years, then sells them month by month through its store. Volvo includes four or five years of digital services depending on the model. On cars from model year 2022 with Google built-in, the Google apps stop unless you pay to extend.

Volkswagen offers its Goconnect app free for five years on the ID. Buzz, with pricing after that “yet to be finalised”. Skoda has no connected services in Australia at all, so the Elroq and Enyaq have no remote app, which surprises some buyers.

What stops working when the free period ends

The phone app is usually what you lose first, and it’s the feature most EV owners use daily. Without it you can’t pre-cool the car on a 40-degree afternoon, check its charge level from your desk, or start charging remotely.

Here’s what typically depends on the car’s SIM and what doesn’t:

Feature	Needs the car’s SIM?	Works over home Wi-Fi or phone?
Remote climate control from the app	Yes	No
Remote lock, unlock and location	Yes	No
Live charge level in the app	Yes	No
Live traffic on the map	Yes	Rarely
Music and video streaming	Yes	Yes, via phone hotspot on some cars
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto	No	Uses your phone
Driving, charging and safety systems	No	n/a
Software updates	Varies by brand	Often via home Wi-Fi

The car itself keeps driving and charging, and none of the plans we checked put safety systems behind a paywall. If your car supports Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, your phone already covers maps, traffic and music. That’s why many owners don’t miss the paid tier.

Remote features are the real loss. If you charge at home on a cheap overnight rate and use the app to time it, check that your car or home charger can schedule charging on its own. Most can.

The 3G shutdown: what happened to older EVs

Telstra and Optus closed their 3G networks on 28 October 2024, after Vodafone shut its own in December 2023. The federal government’s business guidance urged owners of connected devices, including cars, to check their equipment beforehand.

Most EVs weren’t affected, because nearly everything sold since 2020 uses 4G. The main casualties were early Tesla Model S and Model X without an LTE modem, which lost mobile features such as remote unlock unless the owner paid for an infotainment upgrade or stayed on Wi-Fi. Tesla’s 3G retirement page covers the upgrade. Some Hyundai and Kia models needed a software update to keep emergency calling working.

If you’re shopping for an older used EV, ask whether its app still works, and check the car’s modem if it’s an early Model S or X. Our used Tesla buying guide covers the other checks worth doing.

The next cutoff to watch is 4G. Toyota dealer material says its connected services will end when Telstra’s 4G network eventually closes. No date has been set, but a car bought in 2026 could easily still be on the road when it happens.

Can you put connected services through a novated lease?

Probably not as standard. No major novated lease provider lists connected-car subscriptions as a packaged running cost, and the ATO’s list of car expenses covers fuel, servicing, repairs, registration, insurance and interest. It says nothing about software or data plans.

Some providers will budget unusual items if you ask, so it costs nothing to check. Don’t count on it when you compare quotes. At around $168 a year for Tesla’s plan, the tax saving would be small anyway. Our guide to claiming EV charging on a novated lease covers the running costs that definitely do count.

How to keep costs down

The cheapest approach is to work out which features you actually use before the free period ends. Most owners come down to three: pre-cooling, charge monitoring and remote unlock.

• Use your phone for media. CarPlay, Android Auto or a phone hotspot covers maps, traffic and streaming on most cars.
• Connect the car to home Wi-Fi. It keeps software updates arriving whatever your plan.
• Let the car or charger schedule charging. That replaces the app for overnight off-peak charging.
• Check the free period on a used car. Kia’s doesn’t reset for a new owner. Hyundai’s transfers. GWM’s applies to the first owner only.
• Watch for the notice. MG promises 60 days. Kia says it will notify owners. Write the end date in your calendar the day you take delivery.

Connected cars are now the norm. Analytics firm Marqstats estimated that 76.6% of new cars sold in Australia in 2024 had built-in connectivity. A 2024 CHOICE survey of more than 1,000 people found almost three in four objected to car companies collecting in-cabin video or audio. Data use is the other half of connected services, and it’s worth reading the privacy terms while you check the price.

If you’re still choosing a car, the free period is worth comparing alongside range and warranty. Our EV comparison tool puts specs side by side, and the electric vehicles hub has every model sold here.