Chevrolet Will Have Big Presence During The Super Bowl

As one of the must-see events on television, the Super Bowl has become famous for featuring innovative, and expensive, commercial spots. During Super Bowl XLV Sunday, Chevrolet will have plenty of spots as it highlights the Camaro, Cruze Eco, Silverado HD and the Volt.

Chevy’s ads will run pre-game, during the game and post-game. One longer-form Chevrolet spot will air during the “Glee” episode following the Super Bowl.

“Chevrolet has a lot of great news to share right now, and where else do you get to talk to 95 million Americans all at once?” said Joel Ewanick, global chief marketing officer of General Motors. “Chevrolet is using the biggest broadcast day of the year, all day, to talk about the Volt, the North American Car of the Year; the Silverado HD, Motor Trend’s Truck of the Year; the 42-mile-per-gallon Cruze Eco; and the best-selling Camaro.”

Having several ads peppered throughout the Super Bowl is important for GM, which is aiming to highlight the diversity of the Chevrolet lineup. To get a sneak peak at these news spots, see the videos below.

Share

Cleaning The Gulf Of Mexico, One Chevy Volt At A Time

The all-new Chevrolet Volt is an ideal example of how General Motors is staking out a leadership position in the battle to protect the environment, and that includes efforts well beyond providing up to 50 miles of all-electric, emissions-free driving on a single charge of its batteries. For example, GM has developed a new process that will keep some 100,000 lbs. of oil-soaked plastic waste from the Gulf of Mexico out of America’s landfills and incinerators.

The material comes from approximately 100 miles of plastic booms that have been used to soak up excess oil in the Gulf along the coasts of Alabama and Louisiana, and goes through a four-step process overseen by four different GM partners:

* Heritage Environmental collects the material

* Mobile Fluid Recovery dries it and eliminates the absorbed oil and wastewater

* Lucent Polymers prepares the material for die-mold production

* GDC Inc. then uses a patented process to combine that material with other plastic compounds to help produce the actual components

The finished parts are used to assist with airflow around the Volt’s radiator and are made of 25 percent boom material, 25 percent recycled tires from GM testing facilities and 50 percent other post-consumer recycled plastic and polymers. GM is expecting to harvest enough boom material to use it on parts for other vehicles, too.

“Creative recycling is one extension of GM’s overall strategy to reduce its environmental impact,” said Mike Robinson, GM vice president of Environment, Energy and Safety Policy. “We reuse and recycle material by-products at our 76 landfill-free facilities every day. This is a good example of using this expertise and applying it to a greater magnitude.”

Share

Chevy Cruze Earns Five-Star Rating from NHTSA

When Chevrolet set out to design the all-new 2011 Cruze, safety was a top priority. That’s why the Cruze boasts the most standard safety features in its class. And that, in turn, is only one of the reasons why the Chevrolet Cruze just set a brand-new benchmark in National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash-test ratings.

In the fall of 2010, NHTSA instituted a new, stricter grading scale, leveraging more rigorous front- and side-crash tests, along with a rollover-resistance test, for use 2011 model-year vehicles. Even in these more challenging evaluations, the Cruze received perfect five-star ratings in each of the individual crash-impact conditions—the first vehicle ever to achieve this feat. The result? The innovative Chevy received an overall vehicle score of five stars, the highest rating possible.

Significantly, the Cruze was named a 2011 Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, too, after scoring the highest possible ratings in the IIHS’ front, side, rear and rollover crash protection.

Third-party recognition like this is a direct reflection of Chevrolet’s commitment to continuous safety—before, during and after a crash. Contributing to these efforts are standard safety features like Stabilitrak electronic stability control, the Panic Brake Assist and Enhanced Smart Pedal/Brake Override system, a segment-first 10 standard airbags (including the segment’s first front knee airbags), and the Onstar safety and security package.

“Cruze has achieved five-star crash safety scores everywhere it is rated in the world. This is the direct result of our global engineering team’s focused effort,” said Jeff Boyer, General Motors’ executive director of vehicle safety. “These safety ratings reflect the confidence we have in Cruze’s state-of-the-art safety technologies and overall crashworthiness.”

Share

GM Earns Energy And Environmental Excellence Award

One of the world’s premiere providers of information about the energy industry—Hart Energy—recently honored General Motors with its Energy and Environmental Excellence Award for the automaker’s progress in the sustainable use of global natural resources and reducing its environmental footprint.

A key to achieving this honor? GM’s comprehensive approach to greening the auto industry. This naturally includes building high-efficiency new products like the Chevrolet Volt—capable of delivering up to 50 miles of all-electric, no-emissions driving—and the Chevrolet Cruze, which can achieve 42 mpg in highway driving. But significantly, the automaker’s efforts also extend to how those vehicles are being built in the first place.

For example, oil-soaked material from cleanup work in the Gulf of Mexico is being used to make parts for the Volt, while recycled denim from worn blue jeans is being repurposed for the sound-deadening insulation in the Cruze.

The company recently achieved another environmental landmark as well. In 2008, GM dedicated itself to ensuring 50 percent of its facilities worldwide were landfill-free by the end of last year, a goal that automaker has now surpassed. A total of 76 (52 percent) of its facilities reached this status in 2010, meaning that all waste generated from their normal operations was being reused, recycled or converted to energy. This includes some 2.5 million tons of waste material last year alone. And as a result of its dedication to recycling, GM estimates it prevented the equivalent of 8.4 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere.

“It’s all about being creative and lean, and rethinking traditional manufacturing processes,” said John Bradburn, manager of GM’s waste-reduction efforts. “When you think of what it would take for a family of four to not produce any trash for a year, that’s quite a task. This is 76 sites around the world and about 70,000 employees committed to the cause.”

Share