The Malibu is Chevrolet’s last sedan, and the company has decided to stop making it so that the assembly building that makes the four-door can be retooled for the new Chevy Bolt. At first glance, this looks like more bad news for the sedan business. In the US, sedans have been losing ground to full-size trucks and SUVs for the past ten years or so. Automobile News says that the Malibu is dead, even though the car had sold more than 130,000 units by 2023. Malibu sales are lower than they used to be because a lot of them go to rental lots. However, the car was still selling well and ranked third among nameplates in terms of performance over the previous year, behind only the Equinox and Silverado. In 2016, over 227,000 Chevrolet Malibu four-doors were sold, which was the most ever. The sedan’s sales dropped by more than 97,000 units in 2022 compared to its best year in the mid-2010s, but they went up in 2023 compared to 2022 when Chevy sold just over 115,000 units. What is it that goes wrong? It would have made a lot more sense for Chevy to stop making the Malibu if it had sold as badly as the recently dumped Subaru Legacy, which was supposed to sell about 25,500 units in 2023. Why would Chevy miss any of those deals? According to a statement from the car company, this is to help the new Bolt, according to what GM says. GM currently makes the Malibu at its Fairfax Assembly and Stamping plant in Kansas City, but the company wants to make room for electric cars there. The Cadillac XT4 is also made at the plant. However, production of the Caddy will end next year, and the company won’t be able to make the next Bolt or the gas-powered Cadillac before it starts up again. GM has said that the Malibu will be removed so that the Bolt can be made in Fairfax, but it’s still not clear if the ICE-powered XT4 will also be built there. The only thing left to say is that the XT4 is a “luxurious” SUV, and the Malibu is a cheap (read: less profitable) sedan. The Malibu’s demise could be seen as cynical because sedans usually make companies less money, while full-size pickups and SUVs tend to make more. When you put it that way, Chevy sold 555,000 Silverados in 2023 and only 213,000 Equinoxes. And Chevy’s big plans for the upcoming Bolt EV, in which GM is spending $390 million, are said to be the main reason why the Malibu badge will no longer be used. Chevy had already chosen to stop making the Malibu; the first 20 years it was made, from 1964 to 1983, it was made. During that time, four models of the Malibu were released. The car didn’t come back until 1997 when the front-wheel-drive Malibu made a great debut and won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year award. The fifth-generation Malibu led to four more versions, for a total of nine. These were made for an extra 27 years, longer than the first batch of Malibu cars. It looked like the reliable Chevrolet could handle the recent mass extinction of sedans. Based on sales alone, it looks like the Malibu is dying. This means that the new Bolt may live on, even if the old one could have lived that long. I hope GM quickly makes a cheap EV car instead of the Chevy Bolt, which looks like a crossover. Other than that, I am fine with the reliable ICE-equipped sedan being phased out in favor of a cheap EV. The United States needs small, cheap electric cars badly, and the “Big Three” need to fight with Tesla’s Model 3.
