In a little over 24-hours from now, the New York Auto Show will host the world debut of the new generation Chevrolet Impala that goes on sale in North America early next year as a 2014 model.
As a brand new model that has been developed from the ground up, there’s a lot to discuss about the new Impala, but for the time being, GM wants to focus our attention on the full-size sedan’s new leaping African antelope emblem, for which it was named after.
The logo was first introduced in 1958, and has since accompanied most generations of the Impala in one form or the other. As GM points out, the Impala is one of only two vehicles in Chevy’s range to incorporate a unique symbol in addition to the brand’s bowtie, the other being the Corvette and its crossed-flags emblem.
Naturally, Chevrolet’s designers have updated the appearance of the Impala emblem for the new model.
“For the new Impala, we wanted to evolve the emblem to complement the new vehicle design without making any radical changes to its character,” said Joann Kallio, lead creative designer for Chevrolet global badging.
“We kept the stylized interpretation of the animal, and made the impala more muscular. We also added defined edges, to give the impala a sleek form and make it look like it was running fast,” he added.
Chevy did not say if the leaping African antelope would be used in the interior in addition to the car’s C-pillar.
[From GM: Impala Emblem Milestones]
- From 1958 and 1961, the leaping impala was located on the rear quarter panel and had no circle or oval surrounding it.
- From 1962 and 1967, it was located on the front or rear quarter panel with a circle surrounding it.
- From 1968 and 1985, there were no exterior emblems. Only variations of the Impala script were used. The emblem was reserved for the interior, usually on the dashboard and horn button although it was not used for every model year.
- The 1994-1996 Impala SS had the emblem with an oval located on sail panel.
- Since 2002, Impalas have featured the emblem with an oval located on the sail panel.
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