A new example of the Chevy Malibu sedan has not been produced in the United States since February due to the global semiconductor shortage.
The GM Fairfax Assembly plant, which produces both the Chevy Malibu and Cadillac XT4 crossover, was idled on February 8th due to a shortage of semiconductor chips. The plant has remained offline since then, meaning no new examples of the Chevy Malibu nor the Cadillac XT4 have been produced in the past six months. But while production of the Cadillac XT4 is set to restart on September 20th, General Motors has not provided a production restart date for the Chevy Malibu.
It seems GM will wait until it’s ready to begin production of the 2022 model year Chevy Malibu before restarting production of the mid-size sedan. The 2022 Malibu will introduce very minor changes to the nameplate’s options list and trim level structure. For starters, the sedan will ditch the base-model L trim level, making the LS the new entry-level trim going forward, and will come equipped with an electronic parking brake as standard across the lineup. The Shadow Gray Metallic and Black Cherry Metallic exterior colors will also be replaced by two new ones: Mineral Gray Metallic and Dark Ash Metallic.
GM has also removed various dealer-installed options from the Malibu’s order books for 2022, including the cargo area organizer, sport pedal kit, inside rear window sunshade and first aid kit, among others. The sedan will continue to offer two engine options going forward, including the turbocharged 1.5L I4 LFV gasoline engine producing 163 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque, and the turbocharged 2.0L I4 LTG gasoline engine producing 250 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque.
Vehicles like the Chevy Malibu and Cadillac XT4 have been produced in small numbers this year in order to free up more semiconductor chips for GM’s full-size truck and SUV models, which are its most popular and profitable products. As a result, GM has lost only one percent of its usual pickup truck production amid the semiconductor shortage, safeguarding the most important part of its business from the issue.
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Comments
Shocked to find no one here noticed or complained about any shortage of Bu’s.
With so many saying how important cars are yet none noticed?
I did notice as my local dealers have a slow trickle os SUV, trucks and vetted coming in not much else.
well, this is exactly why the heinous Blazer and Trail blazer, made in other countries no less, are gaining sales percentages. Honestly that fact alone should be really headline news.
Serious situation. When past large Chevy dealer over weekend and couldn’t believe lack of inventory in lot. Looked like they were going out of business which is not the case. Crazy stuff.
The microchip shortage is not hitting every carmaker equally. The better run companies are doing just fine.
The Chevy, Ford, Buick, and Lincoln dealers can’t get inventory.
The Toyota, Nissan, and Honda dealers are low on inventory for an entirely different reason: they can’t keep up with the demand for customers that might have otherwise bought a GM or Ford if there were any to buy. They are breaking sales records while GM and Ford have plants that are sitting idle because of a poor leadership decisions around their supply chain.
Forty + years of horrendous management is a hard chain to break!
Its Trumps fault. He upset the far east . Actually the pandemic is hitting Asia way harder than we can imagine, coupled with the large factory fire in Japan and the release of Xbox/PS5 and new Iphones all at same time
Trumps not even in office…..why bring up the previous president?
Also, no the issue is GM, Ford and Stellantis are terribly managed and didn’t plan for the future spike in demand. Whereas Honda and Toyota played their cards properly, they are having issues but their issues is they can’t keep up with the sales.
*this is coming from a long time GM fan, and my family worked for GM.
Not sure where you are getting your information, but the semiconductor global shortage is hitting every auto manufacturer very hard. This was caused by a perfect storm in the April 2020 time frame when Covid took hold in the US. Companies like GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and the rest all were forecasting a sales downturn due to the pandemic. One of the things a manufacturer does when forecasting a downturn in sales is to modify their contracts with suppliers, lowering the amount of parts they will be buying. Perfectly normal in this age of on time delivery. Within a couple months though GM, Toyota, Ford and the rest had gone back to work, only they and most other companies had switched to a work from home strategy, which most are still working under. OK now combine this with children throughout the US attending school from home and you have completed the perfect storm. The demand for electronics skyrocketed from huge increases in purchasing things like PC’s, Laptops, and Tablets. The Tech Companies saw this early and jumped in an bought up all of that excess semiconductor capacity the auto manufacturers had created when they reduced their parts requirements. By summer of 2020 most manufacturers had tried to go back to the semiconductor suppliers to restore their supply however, they were all told the same thing. It will take about 1 year to restore your supply as the excess capacity they had created a couple months earlier had all been spoken for by the Tech Companies. The lead time on a new order for semiconductors is long upwards of a year from the time an order is placed until the semiconductor manufacturer can begin delivering product. Most experts feel that things will begin to return to normal for the auto manufacturers late in the 2nd quarter of 2022. I have been ion the Automobile Business for more than 30 years and every manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on this planet has been hit by this shortage. Hindsight is always 20/20 and the lesson learned here is if this ever happens again, keep the semiconductors coming, and store them until needed. Very little room needed for chips. Kill everything else as there is no place to put it, but keep the chips coming. I mean who knew? I imagine this lesson will be part of future advanced accounting in colleges in the near future.
Do you have some examples of Auto Manufacturers that are doing just fine. Please don’t say Toyota either they just reduced their 3rd quarter production by 40% due to the Semiconductor Shortage.
If the Malibu were a better car with better powertrains, then we’d care more. This car is significantly outclassed.
Bingo. One of the biggest cars I regret owning was a 2016 Chevy Malibu with that pos 1.5 Turbo engine.
Will never own another GM car because of that.
Love how the thumbs down cult refuses to acknowledge someone’s pain and defends incompetent engineering.
#SoAmerican
GM trucks and SUVs are even worse than their cars.
Unfortunately Consumers DO NOT care about the Malibu. GM gave us a DUD yet once again.
It is funny when I hear people state that nobody purchases any Sedans yet ALL the Japanese, German, and Korean manufacturers keep making new ones.
Momolos
The Mazda6 & VW Passat are being discontinued. You must be talking about a different Germany and Japan.
Don’t forget about Toyota cancelling the Avalon.
But apparently GM is the only company that can’t cancel slow selling autos.
@GMC Fan
Well the Avalon is a Big Sedan which is an Impala sized (bigger) sedan.
The Corolla and Camry are not going anywhere.
True. But GM hasn’t announced the cancellation of the Malibu. Maybe a new version is in the works to be developed on the Accord platform. Or a BEV is planned to take over for the Malibu duties. We don’t know. All we hear is the complaining that GM is leaving a segment.
The Mazda 6 is NOT being discontinued but replaced by an inline six with RWD Sedan. I think that is called a Win for Mazda Customers. Passat is allegedly getting discontinued in favor of upcoming BEV.
Mololos, Dream On
All 17 of Mazda’s customers are definitely excited. FOH
this chip shortage has been great for the industry.
buyers are more than willing to buy at msrp. used vehicle prices are up. the value of vehicles coming off lease is up.
why wouldn’t automakers want this chip shortage to continue?
The costs didn’t stop. The workers who used to be making these cars are being paid 75% of normal salary for sitting on their butts.
More than 75% thank you very much, if you’re going to hate on what the workers negotiated for themselves get all the facts right.
Thanks to 300$ week from Biden GM is off almost scott free, and it works out to about 45%, 75 is off of base pay, bonuses and OT account for 30% auto worker’s pay
No!!
Congrats on being part of the problem. FOH
Because they want to, you know, build more cars?
It’s the dealerships that benefit whe sales price is closer to msrp
Automakers benefit from high volume
The truth is look for companies and dealers to work differently.
Even with production back look for them to not keep large inventories. Ford already is looking to build cars to buyers wishes much like it used to be.
Other may follow as they are able to eliminate incentives and increase profits.
But it will take most companies to do this and build and deliveries need to be done quickly.
GM is trying to kill the Malibu anyway so why would they put any effort to build them. This just gives them more of an excuse to drop what is basically a good design that just needs an interior update and better packaging of options. Plus seeing that it’s built along side the we couldn’t give them away XT4 there isn’t much hope for Malibu.
Same problem they have always had. They refuse to look past tomorrow. They can’t see past their own nose.
Malibu faces stiff competition and is at a disadvantage after being neglected by GM’s terrible management.
But it also exists as the only domestic family sedan on the market right now. And as car rental companies and dealers alike are both desperate for products.
Toyota and Nissan are picking up all the slack left by Ford and GM. To the point where they are even having product shortages.
At some point the individuals and companies that paid millions for these dealer franchises should be able to file lawsuits against the companies that can’t supply them with new product. GM and Ford especially wrecked their own supply chain after over reacting to the Covid pandemic.
Import the Chinese Buick Regal as a Malibu. Nobody will notice. Does anybody really care.
The current trade climate will not let that happen
Malibu is not a dream car anyway. It never was one of those cars. It’s like a Lumina 4 Dr or Buick Century. Basic transportation with very modest interiors. Hopefully, they were reliable. Only previous owners know that.
My 2013 Malibu rumbles on down the road…awesome no lie
I honestly wish I had never sold my 2017 Chevy Malibu Premier. One of my favorite cars I have ever owned. Quick, great features, good gas mileage, comfortable and stylish. I would consider another one in the future. I hope GM begins building them again soon.