GM to put aluminum in next-gen truck, following Ford footsteps

It’s no secret that General Motors have been taking every opportunity possible to bash Ford’s extensive use of aluminum in the body of the current-generation Ford F-150. The latest potshot came by way of last month’s YouTube commercial involving a massive brown bear and two cages – one made out of aluminum and one made out of steel. I found the commercial to be groan-inducing as it actually made no sense.

The ads essentially claimed that steel is always better than aluminum. Despite the 2015 Ford F-150 being a better truck than any of the 2015 GM offerings by way of fuel economy, payload capacity, acceleration, and weight savings, the ads still stubbornly cling to the idea of the Silverado being “manlier” and stronger than the Ford just because of the use of steel. This is just GM being a sore loser. Just stop, GM.

What makes these ads even more ridiculous is that GM have just announced a USD$877-million investment for its truck plant in Flint, Michigan. According to Reuters, the investment is part of a plan to “expand three U.S. truck plants to install new assembly lines, body welding shops and paint operations for future generations of Silverado pickups and SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade.”

Now for the icing: “Insiders say GM’s next-generation pickups and SUVs will make use of various materials, including aluminum and lightweight steel, to shed weight and gain fuel efficiency to meet tougher federal standards.”

So despite all its campaigns and despite Howie Mandel’s best shots, it seems the next generation GM trucks will be chock full of aluminum. I wonder what the new ad campaigns for the GM trucks will look like in a couple of years.