When Chevrolet debuted the 2020 Corvette Stingray, it knew the radically different car would result in tons of internet discussion and drive massive amounts of traffic to its site.
Despite being well-prepared, though, the massive interest in the new mid-engine sports car still caught the automaker by surprise.
As Chevrolet marketing director Steve Majoros told Roadshow, the automaker had to increase its server capacity on the fly the night of the debut, as so many people were trying to access the 3D configurator for the car that it was having a negative effect on the user experience.
“With a pretty rabid and passionate base, we knew we’d take 24 hours of grief,” Majoros said. “The majority of people got the full [configurator] experience, which is the full 3D experience. We do have a way that the system throttles to what we’re calling a 2D experience. Once we hit thresholds, we worked with Amazon Web Services very quickly to double our server capacity.”
Majoros said about 1.3 million people used the configurator as of the end of July, with over 940,000 2020 Corvette Stingrays were built over 152,000 hours. Some users also made multiple Corvette configurations and saved them – something that doesn’t surprise Majoros, who is very familiar with the type of buyer that flocks to the Corvette nameplate.
“We have probably infinite build combinations [for the 2020 Corvette Stingray], because that’s what customers want,” he was quoted as saying. “They want a car that’s uniquely theirs. It’s not a surprise that people are building and saving multiple versions.”
Traffic to Chevrolet.com also spiked massively in the hours following the 2020 Corvette Stingray debut. Total traffic for the month of July sat at 2.4 million hits, with 750,000 of those coming just 72 hours after the reveal.
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Source: Roadshow
Comments
While some hate the idea that Chevrolet made the move to a mid-engine car layout for the Corvette, they forget what the change has meant as the C8 Corvette Z51 making 495 hp accelerates to 60 mph almost as fast as the vaunted C7 Corvette ZR1 and makes your mind race as how would the C8 Corvette perform if powered by the 750 hp LT5 supercharged 6.2L V8.
We will find out as I am sure the Z06 is going to do more but the C8 ZR1 and ZORA Hybrid is going to be a Game Changer
Almost? It crashed repeatedly.
The Mustang configuratior just crashed into a firewall…..
My gosh, over *one million* hits in July!! Just an unimaginable load on their servers. No wonder they weren’t prepared! Is that an Internet record?
Apparently GM thought will just *always* be one step behind.
This is what happens when Chevrolet goes all in… Imagine if they put as much effort into the Silverado, Malibu or anything else they did. They’d be unstoppable again.
One can only hope that one day soon they will see the error of their ways and do exactly that. Putting your best foot forward in everything you do can only lead to good things.
At anytime, something could instantly go viral, companies should always be ready for that…
It actually did crash: https://www.autoblog.com/2019/08/12/chevy-corvette-c8-crash/