VW's announcement of API closure and OpenSource "representatives" have been contacted.

[MattiJarvinen]

📣 Dear community,

we have received a few posts and private messages regarding the ‘API switch-off’.

The previously used API was part of the vehicle app infrastructure and was not designed as an official third-party access point. As a result of increasing technical requirements and high usage of the previous architecture, we have completed the transition to documented and standardised APIs.

We contacted numerous companies before the closure to inform them of the planned changes and to support their migration to the official APIs. Some of these contract partners act as data providers for other third parties, meaning that even smaller companies were both technically prepared for the transition and informed at an early stage about the shutdown.

We have been in dialogue with representatives of the open-source community since autumn 2025 and are currently working to develop a solution together.

At the same time, we are fully committed to the objectives of the EU Data Act: vehicle users should be given reliable, secure and legally compliant access to their data. This can be achieved via the following channels: https://www.volkswagen.de/de/mehr/rechtliches/eu-data-act.html

We are continuing to work hard on this and are also exploring additional access methods to ensure we can continue to provide proper support for a range of use cases in the future.

If you use a third-party app and you are not sure whether it is integrated, the best step is to contact the provider directly and ask them to complete the attestation process with VW Group Info Services. If anything is unclear, drop your question below and we will get back to you.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Fp8AJ462V/

The post was made on the official VW ID. Facebook group.

[klaus-schauer]

We have been in dialogue with representatives of the open-source community since autumn 2025 and are currently working to develop a solution together.

That’s nice, but meaningless—especially when you’ve been in a dialogue for six months and are still looking for a solution but don’t have one.

[MattiJarvinen]

I called bah humbug when I got to "the Representatives of the open-source community".

They thought they could get by the directive and it isn't working. In fear of legal action they put out this sorry excuse.

Sign here, English version at the bottom for non German speakers. https://www.change.org/p/eu-data-act-durchsetzen-autohersteller-m%C3%BCssen-uns-zugang-zu-unseren-fahrzeugdaten-geben

[pahenning]

I signed already.

[pahenning]

First of all, there is no "representative of the open source community". As a founding member of the Open Source Business Alliance in 2006 I can also say that there has not been any contact from Volkswagen to the OSB Alliance.

Secondly, Volkswagen is violating German federal law by not providing the data properly. The German version of the EU Data Act has been published in the proper government channel on May 29, 2026 - consequentliy is valid federal law since May 30. The supervising agency is the Bundesnetzagentur, offering a complaint form here: https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Fachthemen/Digitales/DataAct/Beschwerdeportal/start.html

Third point: Data is flowing now - albeit still with some delay, and sometimes exhibiting periods with no data delivery.

Concerning the data itself: This must be a joke, really...

1. Roughly one third of the data points are timestamps,
2. Data like e.g. "additional_consumptions.residual_consumption" or "slope_consumption_values.descent_slope_consumption.value_type" might be interesting for Volkswagen - but certainly not for the end user.
3. Very important data points are simply missing - like e.g. if the vehicle is connected to a charging point.

Regards

pah

[MattiJarvinen]

Yeah, I know.

[pahenning]

The situation is even worse than anticipated. Motivated by a question in an official Volkswagen FB-group whether a third party app such as Tronity is also locked out from access to the car data, I installed a test account of Tronity on my smartphone. Et voilà: I only had to enter the VIN of my wife's car and could see

• data in real time
• data which is not part of the EU Data Act Portal, such as every parking location (!)
  Apart from the preposterous fact that Volkswagen is supplying Tronity with data that I do not get, this is clearly a GDPR violation.

Regards

pah

Edit: With a small patch I could get the CarConnectivity-connector-tronity connector to run, see here. This provides all necessary data if one has a Tronity account (free for a period of 2 weeks).

[trupf]

I got a reply from VW today regarding my complaint due to EU data act noncompliance I post it here (english ersion only):
...
The EU Data Act provides that data must be made available in a structured and machine-readable format and grants a right of access to the generated data, without prescribing a specific technical means of provision (e.g. a particular interface or continuous real-time access). The concrete implementation of data provision is subject to the legal requirements, in particular technical feasibility, as well as legitimate requirements regarding IT security, data protection, system integrity, and the stability of vehicle and backend systems.
The solutions currently provided ensure that you have access to your vehicle data in a suitable, structured, and machine-readable format. It should be noted that immediate or continuous access to data must always comply with certain security requirements in order to ensure both the proper functioning of the systems and the protection of sensitive vehicle and user data. At the same time, the implementation of the EU Data Act requirements is an ongoing development process in which existing solutions are being continuously enhanced, with maintaining a high level of data security and system reliability remaining a central priority.
We understand your point regarding the relevance of real-time data for certain use cases. However, it should be noted that the legal framework does not generally require such provision but rather links it to the aforementioned technical and security-related conditions.
We kindly ask for your understanding that we are currently unable to provide further details regarding potential ongoing or planned developments. However, Volkswagen is committed to ensuring access to vehicle data in compliance with all applicable legal requirements, while also taking data protection and system security aspects into account.
If you want to make the data available for open-source applications which you host yourself, you can use the data act solution designed for B2C. If you want to share data with a 3rd party, this 3rd party needs to be onboarded first. You can share the information of the 3rd party you want to share data with using the contact form and we will take care about 3rd party onboarding.
...
I don't actually understand which 3rd party they mean they will take care for onboarding...can I be my own 3rd party and than I can onboard? Would I need to pay a fee for it?

[klaus-schauer]

This response was to be expected: our solution meets the requirements; if something isn't working quite right yet, it is only because it is still under development; if we aren't delivering a particular feature, it is solely because security and data protection necessitate this.

What goes unmentioned is the crucial point that the data provided here must match the quality and scope of the data passed on to service providers.

Regardless of that, I would be satisfied at this initial stage if, at the very least, the vehicle's current status were available every 15 minutes.

[Pulpyyyy]

Data with read only access is useless (real time or 15min delayed) if you still need to relies on android or iPhone app to start/stop charging manually

[klaus-schauer]

Write access is not strictly necessary for controlling charging via a local wallbox. It would already be a significant improvement if at least the state-of-charge and target charge level values ​​were up to date. The situation might be different for public charging stations.

[Pulpyyyy]

Hi

I guess some 3rd party could be SmartCar for example. A multi brand portal.
What is annoying is that they claims there is a Onboarding process but never explain or link to it.

Too bad

[pahenning]

1. My control of the charging process runs entirely via the wallbox (goE-Charger). Write access is nevertheless necessary if one wants to start the climatization - like e.g. cooling the vehicle down 20 minutes before using it, or warming it in winter.

2. The data provided by the VW Data Act portal is still not available as advertised. There are random delays, like e.g. claiming the vehicle is still charging - while in reality the charging process was stopped more than 15 minutes ago.

3. VW does indeed describe the "onboarding process" on the website https://drivesomethinggreater.com/, look at the bottom of the page. You need to be the representative of a legal entity, having "power of attorney" (i.e. are allowed to sign contracts with VW) to get access. Ridiculous, as this is targeted at selling your data to third parties.

4. As I draw data from the VW Data Act portal as well as from my two Tronity accounts, I have proof that some vehicle data is available to Tronity, but no to myself. In particular, Tronity receives the coordinates of every parking location (and then determines the parking address...) - very similar to the parking location provided in the old API. Since this is missing in the VW Data Act Portal, I now have a lever to submit another complaint to the German Bundesnetzagentur (which is the supervising entity for the EU Data Act).

5. The connector to the VW Data Act portal provided by mikrohard works quite nicely. I have added a few data points

    'settings.charge_mode_selection',
    'outdoor_temperature',
    'remaining_climate_time',
    'parking_brake',
    'open'

the first one being outside the normal carconnectivity readings - but provided by the portal. The "open" data point is still mysterious to me, as it does not describe the status of doors/windows. I'd be happy to provide the patch (which is just a modified version of connector.py) to anybody. I guess I can find some time tomorrow to create a branch of this connector with the necessary patches.

Regards

pah