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Watch these Super Bowl car commercials [UPDATE]

On Sunday, February 3, the New England Patriots take on the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 53 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Some will watch because of the storyline of the old-school dynasty facing off against the new-school wunderkinds, but a large chunk of people will solely be watching for the commercials. Lucky for those who slot into the latter category, many of the manufacturers release their super bowl ads ahead of time, or have simply opted to release the commercials only online. Scroll down to see what car companies have already shown their cards. Audi Audi goes the comedic route in its clip for the Big Game. It starts with a grandpa showing his grandson a gorgeous Audi e-tron GT tucked away in a garage before he's shaken awake. Turns out he was just choking on a cashew in his cubicle at his boring job. Dodge Dodge does what it knows: create enough smoke to punch more holes in the ozone layer. Set to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia (the Super Bowl is in Atlanta, get it!?), a Challenger SRT Hellcat widebody, Charger SRT Hellcat, and Durango SRT are seen ripping through a city, leaving a trail of rubber crumbs in their wakes. Genesis Genesis has not yet released a commercial prior to the Super Bowl, but it is the official luxury vehicle of the NFL. Because of this, Genesis is hosting a fan experience for 10 days before the game. It will showcase the brand's cars, offer games, and have photos opportunities and autograph days. Hyundai Jason Bateman alert! Hyundai is one of the few companies to hook a major celebrity for its advertisement, and the casting is perfect. Bateman plays a doorman who takes people to various terrible events in life, including root canals, the middle seat, and shopping for a car. The ad centers around Hyundai's Shopper Assurance, which is Hyundai's new method for car shopping. Jeep An old 1963 Jeep Gladiator finds its strength in the crusher and transforms into a a new 2020 Gladiator, with a firm declaration that the nameplate is officially back. Kia Through Kia's commercial, a young boy wonders out loud what it'd be like if the millions spent on Super Bowl commercials were used to help others.

Nissan ZEOD RC on track and from behind the wheel

The Nissan ZEOD RC hybrid racecar has had mixed success in its competition life. It was invented to do a completely electric, high-speed lap at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which it was able to do in practice. However, when the big event actually came, the car lasted less than an hour before it had to bow out with transmission issues. Nissan hasn't completely given up on its experiment, though. The experience (and possibly some of the tech) is going to help with the GT-R LM racer next year, and now the ZEOD is getting its chance to see how it handles the Top Gear test track.
Unfortunately, it's not The Stig piloting the ZEOD; instead, the magazine's motoring editor Ollie Marriage is the lucky man for the job. The car's sharp shape seems to be a good metaphor for how it handles because it just seems to dart around the track. Its tiny, turbocharged 1.5-liter engine with 400 horsepower and two electric motors put out a claimed 750 horsepower, and that seems like plenty for the relatively short Top Gear course.
As usual of Top Gear, the cinematography here is fantastic, and a second video shows off a single lap of the course from around the car. It's amazing to watch, especially with its big screen constantly showing the camera view out of the rear. Scroll down to see both.

Ghosn: Low oil prices won't hurt EVs much

Carlos Ghosn might be the most unflappable automotive CEO around. Despite lower gas prices and signs that these prices do impact green vehicle sales, the CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this weekend saying that people will continue to buy electric vehicles. "I don't think it is going to be slowing down," he said. "The people who are buying mainly for economic reasons may be deterred from it, but you have plenty of consumers buying EV for other reasons. On top of this, even though the price of oil is unpredictable – nobody has predicted last year that we would be at this level of oil price today and nobody knows where oil price will be next year or two years down the road – but what is predictable is that the regulation on emissions is going to get tougher in the various markets where we are present. So, our EV strategy is here not only to face too much dependence on oil or the cost of oil, but also to allow us to meet the very stringent regulations on emissions that are happening and will be happening in the future. So I can bet you that more and more car makers are coming to EVs and they're going to continue to build and sell EVs, even though the price of oil is coming down." The bit about oil prices and electric vehicles starts at 1:35 into the video. News Source: Nissan via YouTube Green Nissan Renault Emissions Gas Prices Electric Videos oil prices