Flash Fees and Flash Points
What's happened to Flash Licences?
As of the 10th of September 2018, we have changed the way we charge you for programming a vehicle ECU with EcuTek. Instead of charging you for a Flash Licence, we now charge you a Flash Fee.
Flash Fees are made up of Flash Points. The vehicles that we support are grouped into five classes. Each class will require a different number of Flash Points to program. The required number of Flash Points for each class is the Flash Fee.
The classes of Flash Fee are:
- Premium Plus
- Premium
- Performance
- TCM Pro
- Street
The table below shows which vehicles are in which class and the cost of Flash Fees in number of Flash Points.
| Tuning Suite | Class | Flash Points Required |
|---|---|---|
| BMW F Series - S55 | Premium Plus | 375 |
| BMW F Series - N55 | Premium | 300 |
| Nissan GT-R ECM | Premium | 300 |
| Nissan VR30 Twin Turbo | Premium | 300 |
| Ford Ecoboost | Performance | 225 |
| Mazda MX-5 SkyActiv-G | Performance | 225 |
| Nissan 370Z | Performance | 225 |
| Subaru BRZ / Toyota FT-86 | Performance | 225 |
| Subaru CAN Petrol | Performance | 225 |
| Nissan GT-R TCM | TCM Pro | 175 |
| Great Wall Wingle | Street | 155 |
| Honda | Street | 155 |
| Mazda DISI | Street | 155 |
| Mazda MX-5 | Street | 155 |
| Mitsubishi Diesel | Street | 155 |
| Mitsubishi EVO X | Street | 155 |
| Mitsubishi K-Line EVO 5-9 | Street | 155 |
| Nissan Juke | Street | 155 |
| Subaru Diesel | Street | 155 |
| Subaru 1999 | Street | 155 |
| Subaru 2002 | Street | 155 |
| Subaru 2004 | Street | 155 |
Why are we doing this?
Establishing a dynamic Flash Fee programme that is based on the vehicle being tuned allows our dealers to be more competitive.
Previously in the street class, for example, our single Flash licence price meant that our dealers struggled to be competitive. With dynamic Flash Fees they will be able to expand their business into new areas.
In the Premium class, our competitors are already charging more than our single Flash Licence, so our new dynamic pricing matches the competition and does not price our dealers out. Now we have a Minimum advertised price (MAP) programme, our dealers will be able to charge the higher price and reap the benefits of a protected higher margin.
What do Flash Fees cost me?
As part of the introduction of Flash Fees and Flash Points, we have also established Dealer Tiering. There are three tiers, and depending on which tier a dealer is in, they will get different discounts on Flash Fees.
How do I purchase Flash Fees?
You can purchase Flash Fees through the EcuTek Webstore. You can select to buy the Flash Fee for the class of car you want to tune, or you can opt to buy Flash Points in bulk.
If you know which cars you are going to tune, it will be easier to choose the Flash Fee option. Select the Flash Fee for the class of car you want to tune, enter the number you want to buy and click add to cart.
After checking out with your order, the total number of Flash Points purchased will be allocated to your webstore account. Your available Flash Points will be shown in the Details tab of your webstore account. It will also be shown in the My Dongles tab.
How do I allocate Flash Points or Flash Fees to my licence keys (dongles)?
Just go to your webstore account, and select the My Dongles page, then click the green plus icon next to the dongle you wish to allocate Flash Points to. You will be able to allocate either whole Flash Fees worth of Flash Points, or as many Flash Points as you need. After confirming the allocation, run EcuTek Update from within ProECU, and the Flash Points will be applied to your dongle.
What happens when I come to flash a car?
The process is the same as it used to be with Flash Licences. ProECU will query the ECU and see if it has previously be programmed on EcuTek. If it has, you will be able to program the car as usual without any further steps. No points will be taken from your dongle.
If the ECU has not been programmed before with EcuTek, ProECU will let you know and tell you the number of Flash Points required to program the vehicle.
If you attempt to program the car and do not have the correct number of Flash Points on your dongle, you will receive a message stating that you must purchase more Flash Points before tuning the vehicle. Otherwise, the number of Flash Points will be deducted from your dongle and the ECU will be programmed.