General Motors will lean heavily on the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu to help boost its profits and grow its market share with plans to move more than 250,000 examples of the mid-size sedan a year, Reuters reports.
Last year, GM said it will move about 225,000 2016 Malibus a year once the model debuts in New York this coming April. However suppliers have more recently been told to prepare for sales of 250,000-300,000 units a year, much more than the eighth-generation car ever managed.
The new Malibu is also expected to deliver $1,500 more profit per car than its predecessor, GM officials told Reuters. Combined with the forecasted sales increase, GM is looking for about $450 million in additional profit from the new mid-size sedan. If it’s as successful as predicted, the Malibu will play a crucial role in CEO Mary Barra’s plan to achieve 10 percent profit margins and a 20 percent return on capital.
To achieve these ambitious sales figures, the Malibu will have to blow its competition out of the water. The Malibu nameplate has consistently lagged behind segment-leading rivals like the Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata and Toyota Camry, so Chevy will be tasked with convincing buyers their new Malibu is worth a look. To do this, the automaker will run ads showing off the car’s modern styling, improved fuel-efficiency and new safety and connectivity features.
“If you’re going to beat the champ, you can’t just win on split decision,” Steve Hurley, owner of Stingray Chevrolet near Tampa, Florida, told Reuters in an interview. “You’ve got to knock him out. That’s what the (new) Malibu has to do.”
Industry analysts aren’t totally convinced GM can turn the Malibu nameplate into what it wants it to be. LMC Automotive predicts Malibu sales will barely crack 200,000 units in 2016 before dropping back into the 100k range, just as the current model did. IHS forecasts Chevy moving about 200,000- to 210,000 Malibus a year.
There’s not enough elbow room in the segment for every automaker to meet their sales goals, explained Nissan’s VP of U.S. sales, Derrick Hatami, so Chevy will have to give customers a good reason to pick the Malibu over its rivals if they wish to reach their objectives.
“If you add up all of the sales objectives of all the different nameplates, it’s probably twice as big as the segment itself,” Hatami told Reuters. “Everybody’s got very lofty objectives.”
Comments
That’s a pretty bold forecast from GM. I just hope that they have a variety of exciting exterior and interior colors to help the Malibu get noticed, and not 10 shades of boring silver, gray, beige and brown.
They will only have success if they addressed all the issues with the current Malibu: fuel economy, rear seating, very low entry point, styling (don’t mind the front but the Volvo crossed with a Camaro rear end just looks wrong on the car) and suspension (it handles just ok, but doesn’t feel crisp or confident in higher speed maneuvers).
I hope they hit a home run with the 2016 as GM needs a strong competitor in this class. But I can say that our dealership’s new car manager comes knocking on my door (fleet) every time we have an older aged Malibu we need to shake.
The strange part is that our used buyback Malibu’s have an average shelf life of under 21 days on our lot before selling (which is short in this industry). And they are still bringing a strong dollar ($27,500 Canadian new MSRP still sell for $18,000 – 19,000 as a used buyback). This is strong considering the new Malibu at $27,500 can be sold cash right now for $23,000 with Canadian rebates. So the used market loves the Malibu but the new buyer market doesn’t.
Malibu nameplate lacks customer good will. GM would be wise to replace it with an old school GM nameplate like Cutlass or Tempest. These are great names, remembered by older shoppers, and slick enough for millennials.
This new mid-sizer must blow away competition and deserves a new name.
GM has been to quick to abandon a vehicles name especially if it receives a little bad press or doesn’t quite live up to expectations for whatever reason.
Think of all the top selling models in each vehicle segment and for the most part their names have been consistent over many model generations if not from the start; Silverado, F150, Camry, Accord, Civic, Corolla. Mustang, etc.
Keeping the same name, even if the one before was disappointing is the best way to build the brand. IMO.
Cutlass and Tempest were not Chevys to start with and the Malibu has a lot of equity that is not really as bad as you try to make it. The last model was a great seller and had a very good rep even still today.
The name is fine leave it alone. Of any car to change the name this is one of the last you would touch.
As for expectations. I will wait till I see the car in person. I know it will be good and hope it will be good enough to turn these kinds of numbers. It can be done they just need to get the car right and pricing will be important.
I really wish GM would not put projections out there in the public as even if they sell 200,000 units the first year people will pounce on them for not meeting projections. That is what happened with the Cruze the first year as it started out slow and really took off the second year.
Same for the Nox as the present models first year was good but it increased in sales over the last 5 years and sold the most over 200,000-250.000 units last year.
Didn’t help that the current Malibu had no optional V-6. Honda and Toyota offer an optional V-6.
The V6 was such a low volume engine it was seldom misses. I know as I drive a 08 V6 and count the tail pipes on ever Bu I see to tell it if is a V6 or 4.
The fact is the Turbo 4 is a much more peppy and powerful engine with better mileage so there is no need for a limited 6.
The others will lose there very soon as no cars in this segment will have a V6 in the future.
I also own a GM turbo 4 car too and if given the choice of the Turbo or one of my two V6 car the Turbo is the much more fun engine to drive and much more better MPG. The V6 just does not have the torque curve of the Turbo.
I heard the take rate of the Turbo was about 5%. The V6 was selling more than that.
GM announced this week that a new Hybrid Malibu will be available next year. Instead of a automatic transaxle, it will use a version of the Chevy Volt’s new 5ET50 EDU (Electric Drive Unit) which integrates two electric motors, controllers, and the output differential as a single unit attached to the 1.8 L I4 engine, and a small 1.5 kWh battery behind the gas tank. It will give the Hybrid Malibu the instantaneous torque of electric drive as in the Volt, and reach up to 55 MPH before the gas engine starts to power the vehicle. Since it is pure electric drive, there is no transmission or gear shifts. It will use regeneration to recover the energy when braking and recharge the battery, perfect for low speed and heavy city traffic. The expected miles per gallon rating will exceed 45.
Read more here:
http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2015/mar/0325-malibu.html