Lamborghini Is Now Authenticating Heritage Cars On the Salesforce Blockchain
On November 19, Salesforce announced that Automobili Lamborghini, the Italian super car brand, will now authenticate heritage cars on the Salesforce blockchain.
According to the newswire, reselling Lamborghinis requires between 800–1,000 certification checks at the Lamborghini headquarters in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy. Performing these certification checks requires coordination between photographers, auction houses, dealerships, repair shops and other resources to properly verify the parts and service history of each unique vehicle.
Why This Matters to Lamborghini
Digitizing the recordkeeping across the life of a Lamborghini makes verifications quicker and more accurate, Salesforce claims. Each vehicle will now come with an immutable record of service, including restorations and prior ownership, through partnerships with technicians, repair shops and dealerships to store records about Lamborghini vehicles on a Salesforce blockchain.
“Blockchain is changing the way companies approach trust and transparency,” said Adam Caplan, SVP, Emerging Technology, Salesforce. “Lamborghini is a perfect example of this — we’re excited to see how such an iconic brand is able to innovate and transform the vintage car market with a cutting-edge technology like Salesforce Blockchain.”
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Lamborghini hopes that this will make the exotic vehicles more valuable over time by providing a manufacturer-sponsored source of counterfeit protection for consumers.
“Innovation has been at the core of our company since its founding,” said Paolo Gabrielli, Head of After Sales at Automobili Lamborghini. “Salesforce Blockchain will allow us to take our innovation a step further, accelerating the authenticity of our heritage vehicles faster than ever.”
What This Means for the Rest of the Car Industry
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. is owned by the German automobile manufacturer Audi AG. The Volkswagen Group member is currently testing blockchain technologies for financial processing, supply chain efficiency and more. In 2017, Audi’s proof of concept using IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric was met with positive feedback.
“The outstanding collaboration between the various parts of the IBM team and our team ensured that we overcame all potential areas of risk during these highly complex migration projects,” says Markus Wierl, service owner of SAP Infrastructure at Audi AG. “The positive results we saw in the Proof-of-Concept have been reflected in our production environment, and the business is already seeing the benefits. We have improved system performance and adherence to SLAs, and we have also reduced our energy requirements and costs for IT through virtualization.”
Other German manufacturers, such as Volkswagen, are also testing blockchain for business applications. Earlier this year, Business Blockchain HQ reported a blockchain pilot spearheaded by Volkswagen that traces lead minerals from mining sites to factories. The pilot aims to improve cross-border battery supply chains and comprises of the suppliers of over two-thirds of Volkswagen’s total lead material.
Marco Phiipi, head of strategy for Volkswagen Procurement, said in a statement, “Digitalization provides important technological instruments that enable us to track the path of minerals and raw materials in cross-border supply chains in ever greater detail.”
Volkswagen hopes that the blockchain-based pilot project will guarantee compliance with battery component requirements.
