Mercedes-Benz, a luxury car manufacturer, announced yesterday the pending release of the third non-fungible token collection in its ‘Core’ series: NXT Icons. The NFT set will connect the company’s past, present, and future through over 18,000 artistically rendered tokens spread out across seven eras in the company’s existence.
1/ We are excited to announce our next core collection, Mercedes-Benz NXT Icons, which takes you on a journey through @MercedesBenz‘s design heritage and features icons from both the past and present. Find out more about this collection in this thread. ↓ pic.twitter.com/6EauPdTBEi
— Mercedes-Benz NXT (@MercedesBenzNXT) August 22, 2023
All told, there will be 2,694 digital collectibles for six of the eras, 2,696 for the seventh. There’s no word yet on the mint price per collectible, though holders of the company’s previous ‘Core’ collections — ‘Maschine’ and ‘NXT Eternities’ — can mint a ‘mint pass’ per token that they hold. As of now, the mint passes are trending around 0.15 ETH ($252) on OpenSea.
The seven eras to be featured in the NXT Icons collection are: The Era of Luxury, The Era of Technology, The Era of Precision, The Era of Safety, The Era of Elegance, The Era of Performance, and The Era of Pioneering. A preview of the digital collectibles on the NXT Icons website shows specific cars attached to each era, with the cars jutting out of the card like a 3D image.
Each era and its corresponding set of collectibles will be released every few months, with the company promising to share more information about the first era soon. The collectibles will be interpretations of notable Mercedes-Benz designs, done with the guidance of the company’s design team, headed by Gorden Wagener.
The NXT Icons collection would complete the company’s ‘Core’ NFT series, which began earlier this year. It is uncertain whether Mercedes-Benz will launch other NFT projects, though it dabbled in the space even before its Core series.
Car Companies Bet Big on Web3
After sports, there is perhaps no bigger industry that has taken to Web3 like the automotive industry. At Rarity Sniper, we have covered countless stories about luxury and regular automotive brands entering the space, launching NFT collections, and even debuting in the metaverse. Here are three.
First, nine months ago, Porsche revealed that it had plans to enter Web3 with an NFT collection. There were 7,500 NFTs, with users able to influence the appearance of the non-fungible tokens by choosing one of three tracks. In addition, there were four mint “waves” and an IRL event in Miami.
Next, ten months ago, Nissan filed for five NFT trademarks based on its most popular car models, including the GTR, SKYLINE, and Z. With the trademarks, the company intended to create NFTs and NFT-backed media, an NFT marketplace, and NFT storage solution software.
Lastly, about a year ago, luxury car manufacturer McLaren announced it would release an NFT set called “The Genesis Collection.” The holders of these NFTs would receive perks, including a virtual visit to McLaren’s Technology Center and other events. The mint price was high at the time (0.5 ETH) but was so exclusive that many people wanting the NFTs were out of luck.
As Mercedes-Benz shows, car companies are still creating in the space, which is a bullish sign. The collection also shows the power of NFTs to weave a story, creating a thread between the past, present, and future, and doing so in a way that gives value to customers, rather than extract it.