A Corvette Z06 NFT failed to garner interest as its auction closed last week without a single bid. The winner would have received a unique Non-Fungible Token (NFT) as well as a bespoke real-world derivative of the model.
The virtual world is growing and automakers are trying to pioneer this uncertain market to appeal to the future technology of Web3, NFT, and crypto. Sometimes it backfires, this is one of those times.
Chevrolet offered a one-of-one NFT in a five-day auction which would have included an exclusive NFT artwork by xsullo and a custom, real life Corvette Z06. The Minimum bid started at 206 ETH (or just under R4 million at the time the auction commenced) with the auction being extended by 24 hours without a single bid being placed. All proceeds were intended to benefit DonorsChoose but no actual “Minted Green” Corvette Z06 NFT was ever actually created since this was only going to happen once the auction had closed. We expect that Chevrolet will cut their losses and move on from this experience without creating the mid-mounted V8 powered supercar.
Trevor Thompkins, Chevrolet spokesperson, mentioned that the “first step into Web3 has been educational, and we will continue to leverage technology to benefit our customers” when speaking to CorvetteBlogger. Thompkins remained hopeful that their educational learnings would be leveraged correctly by further adding that they would “take what we’ve learned and apply it to future projects.”
The Corvette Z06 NFT was touted to offer the 5,5-litre V8 that is good for 500 kW and 623 N.m. Listen to the flat-plane crankshaft goodness in this video here. Others have dabbled in the NFT and Web3 world with crypto too but many have also failed or did not achieve the desired results that were originally intended. It can be expected that as the technology becomes adopted and trusted by the public, mainstream manufacturers will be able to successfully leverage it but for now it is a slippery slope to pioneer.