General Motors Corporation has officially confirmed that it will end production of the Malibu mid-size sedan this fall. The Malibu will not have an heir; the Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas City (USA, Kansas), where the Chevrolet Malibu is produced for the North American market, will be repurposed to produce the new generation of compact electric vehicles, the Chevrolet Bolt.
Rumors about the impending untimely retirement of the Chevrolet Malibu have been circulating in the American press since 2019 in light of GM's massive restructuring plan. This plan involved abandoning low-profit “hydrocarbon” models and preparing for mass production of a new generation of different-sized electric vehicles. All traditional Chevrolet cars, sedans and hatchbacks have become victims of GM's optimization in the USA. Last winter, even the iconic Chevrolet Camaro sports car was discontinued, but after some time it will still have a successor, but the successor to the Malibu – the last of the American Chevrolet sedans – is not in GM's official plans.
The history of the Chevrolet Malibu dates back to 1964; the front-wheel drive sedan of the current ninth generation on the E2XX platform has been produced without significant changes since 2015; GM did not even allocate money for routine restyling. In the USA, the Chevrolet Malibu is now offered only with a 1.5-liter gasoline turbo engine (165 hp, 250 Nm) and a CVT; previously the range included diesel and hybrid versions. Prices start at $25,100.
Even in the last decade, Malibu found more than 200 thousand buyers in the United States annually, then demand began to fall due to the outflow of customers into the crossover segment, but in the last full year of sales – 2023 – demand for Malibu increased by 12.9% (compared to with sales in 2022) up to 130,342 units. For comparison, let's say that the Toyota Camry sold 290,649 units in the United States last year. (-1.2%), Honda Accord – 197,947 units. (+28%), Hyundai Sonata – 45,344 units. (-18%). In the first quarter of this year, Chevrolet Malibu sales in the United States went down again: 32,749 units were sold. (-12.5%).
Yesterday, The Detroit News, citing GM spokesman Kevin Kelly, reported that production of the Chevrolet Malibu at the Fairfax plant in Kansas City will cease in November of this year. The Cadillac XT4 platform crossover is assembled at the same plant; its production will be suspended in the first quarter of next year, as the Fairfax plant is undergoing a large-scale modernization for the production of electric trains. The reconstruction is planned to be completed by the end of 2025, then the plant will resume production of the Cadillac XT4 (perhaps this will be a next-generation crossover) and begin production of inexpensive second-generation Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles on a simplified version of the Ultium platform. Production of the first generation of the Chevrolet Bolt EV compact van and the Chevrolet Bolt EUV crossover ended last December, they were assembled at the Orion Assembly plant in the suburbs of Detroit.
Chinese Chevrolet Malibu
Chevrolet Malibu of Chinese and Uzbek assembly remain in service for now; their future fate is unknown to us. Sales of the Chinese Chevrolet Malibu in 2023 decreased by 49% to 15,309 units. and continued to fall in the first quarter of this year: 1,369 units were sold. (-67.6%) – it’s unlikely that Malibu has a future in China with such commercial indicators.
In general, everything is heading towards the fact that the Chevrolet Malibu will soon finally become history. Chevrolet's smaller sedans, such as the Monza, will continue to live outside the US.
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