Chevy Malibu Designed to Be GM's First Global Car
General Motors has some lofty goals with its new Chevrolet Malibu, as it seeks to make the car its first car produced and marketed to multiple world markets in the same form while also trying to cut further into the dominance of the midsize sedan by Toyota's Camrys and other popular vehicles. One of the biggest factors leading to GMs collapse in 2009 was the inefficiency of its cars, as it has historically manufactured different versions of the same cars at factories in Europe, Asia and North America.
With the Malibu, the company is taking another step in its longtime goal of designing mainstream vehicles that can be built and sold worldwide, thus reducing costs and fueling higher profit margins. In the meantime, GM is pinning its hopes of cracking deeper into the midsize market that has been dominated by the Camry, the Honda Accord and the Nissan Altima.
As it has for more than a decade, the Camry led the midsize market this year with sales of 275,000, followed by the Altima with about 245,000 sales. The current Malibu did move 192,000 units, but at leas 25 percent of those were discount sales to the government or rental car fleets. The first version of the new Malibu at American dealers will be the Malibu Eco, equipped with e-assist, a mild hybrid system that allows the engine to stop running when the car is stopped. The vehicle can travel 25 miles per gallon in the city and 39 miles on the highway, and is part of the growing trend of more fuel-efficient cars as automakers try to stay ahead of evolving government regulations on fuel economy.
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