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Chevy Malibu Sales Drop 47 Percent, Placing Fourth During Q4 2023

Chevy Malibu sales decreased in the United States and Canada, with no deliveries in South Korea, during the fourth quarter of 2023.

Chevrolet Malibu Sales - Q4 2023 - United States

In the United States, Chevrolet Malibu deliveries totaled 18,893 units in Q4 2023, a decrease of about 47 percent compared to 35,668 units sold in Q4 2022.

During the complete 2023 calendar year, Malibu sales increased about 13 percent to 130,342 units.
MODEL Q4 2023 / Q4 2022 Q4 2023 Q4 2022YTD 2023 / YTD 2022 YTD 2023 YTD 2022
MALIBU -47.03% 18,893 35,668 +12.88% 130,342 115,467

Chevrolet Malibu Sales - Q4 2023 - Canada

In Canada, Chevrolet Malibu deliveries totaled 583 units in Q4 2023, a decrease of about 62 percent compared to 1,552 units sold in Q4 2022.

During the complete 2023 calendar year, Malibu sales decreased about 1 percent to 5,238 units.
MODEL Q4 2023 / Q4 2022 Q4 2023 Q4 2022YTD 2023 / YTD 2022 YTD 2023 YTD 2022
MALIBU -62.44% 583 1,552 -0.63% 5,238 5,271

Chevrolet Malibu Sales - Q4 2023 - South Korea

In South Korea, Chevrolet Malibu deliveries totaled 0 units in Q4 2023, a decrease of about 100 percent compared to 225 units sold in Q4 2022.

During the complete 2023 calendar year, Malibu sales decreased about 95 percent to 80 units.
MODEL Q4 2023 / Q4 2022 Q4 2023 Q4 2022YTD 2023 / YTD 2022 YTD 2023 YTD 2022
MALIBU -100.00% 0 225 -94.70% 80 1,509

This is the Chevy Malibu, the only sedan currently on sale by the Bow Tie brand. A next-generation model is planned for the 2026 model year.

Competitive Sales Comparison (USA)

Chevy Malibu sales during the fourth quarter of 2023 saw the Bow Tie brand’s only remaining sedan slip a spot from last quarter to fourth place in its segment when ranked by sales volume.

The Toyota Camry took back the top spot this time by a wide margin after the Honda Accord had bumped the perennial leader for the first time since we started tracking sales for the mainstream midsize sedan segment. Though sales of the Camry slipped 10 percent to 72,674 units, the popular sedan moved nearly 27K deliveries more than the Accord, which slipped back to second with a four percent uptick to 45,745 units. The Nissan Altima rose to third with a five percent rise to 35,519 units. Sales of the Malibu (see running Chevy Malibu sales) fell 47 percent to 18,893 units, putting it in fourth place behind the Altima. The Kia K5 took fifth with a 19 percent bump to 15,178 units, while the Hyundai Sonata, its corporate sibling, took sixth with a 60 percent drop to 8,003 units. The Subaru Legacy finished the list again in seventh with an eight percent swell to 5,888 units.

Sales Numbers - Midsize Mainstream Sedans - Q4 2023 - USA

MODEL Q4 23 / Q4 22 Q4 23 Q4 22 Q4 23 SHARE Q4 22 SHARE YTD 23 / YTD 22 YTD 23 YTD 22
TOYOTA CAMRY -10.05% 72,674 80,798 36% 35% -1.54% 290,649 295,201
HONDA ACCORD +3.62% 45,745 44,149 23% 19% +28.03% 197,947 154,612
NISSAN ALTIMA +4.98% 35,519 33,833 18% 15% -8.52% 128,030 139,955
CHEVROLET MALIBU -47.03% 18,893 35,668 9% 15% +12.88% 130,342 115,467
KIA K5 +19.18% 15,178 12,735 8% 5% -2.30% 64,772 66,298
HYUNDAI SONATA -59.77% 8,003 19,893 4% 9% -17.75% 45,344 55,131
SUBARU LEGACY +8.12% 5,888 5,446 3% 2% +12.85% 25,510 22,605
TOTAL -13.17% 201,900 232,522 +3.92% 882,594 849,269

From a segment share standpoint, the Malibu earned a nine percent share, down six percentage points year-over-year. The Camry posted a 36 percent share, up one percentage point, accounting for over a third of all sales in this space. The Accord followed with a 23 percent segment share, up four percentage points, for about a quarter of all deliveries. Meanwhile, the Altima earned an 18 percent share, down three percentage points. The K5 held with an eight percent share, up three percentage points, and the Sonata posted a four percent share, down five percentage points. Finally, the Legacy earned a three percent share, up one percentage point.

It’s worth noting that the two entries fielded by Hyundai Motor Group, namely the Sonata and K5, accounted for a cumulative 23,181 deliveries, good for a combined 12 percent segment share to pull ahead of the Malibu for fourth place overall.

Sales Numbers - Hyundai and Kia Midsize Sedans - Q4 2023 - USA

MODEL Q4 23 / Q4 22 Q4 23 Q4 22 Q4 23 SHARE Q4 22 SHARE YTD 23 / YTD 22 YTD 23 YTD 22
HYUNDAI SONATA -59.77% 8,003 19,893 35% 61% -17.75% 45,344 55,131
KIA K5 +19.18% 15,178 12,735 65% 39% -2.30% 64,772 66,298
TOTAL -28.95% 23,181 32,628 -9.32% 110,116 121,429

The midsize mainstream sedan segment fell 13 percent to 201,900 units during Q4 2023, meaning Chevy Malibu sales significantly underperformed the segment average.

The GM Authority Take

Chevy Malibu sales took a nose dive during the fourth quarter of 2023, undoing a positive sales trend that began the previous year. The Bow Tie brand’s only remaining sedan likely suffered from limited inventory supply and availability at dealers due to 2023 GM-UAW labor negotiations that prompted GM to idle Chevy Malibu and Cadillac XT4 production this past September. GM and the UAW reached a tentative contract agreement at the end of October.

Meanwhile, competitors have stepped up their game, introducing refreshed and next-generation models to take on the dated Chevy Malibu.

Most recently, the refreshed 2025 Kia K5 debuted as a Malibu rival, joining its corporate sibling, a refreshed 2024 Hyundai Sonata.

A next-generation 2025 Toyota Camry with an exclusive hybrid powertrain was revealed just this past Fall. The redesigned 2023 Honda Accord debuted last year.

A modestly refreshed 2023 Subaru Legacy was announced sometime before that.

Notably, most of these models offer a hybrid variant, a strategy that Asian automakers, in particular, have never abandoned for many of their respective models. Honda, in particular, expects hybrid variants to account for 50 percent of all Accord sales. Camry sales will be 100 percent hybrid starting with the 2025 model year. These manufacturers are expanding their hybrid offerings or are introducing variants on models such as trucks for the first time.

GM is taking note and will subsequently reintroduce plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) in North America. Yet, we at GM Authority have concerns regarding the viability of an option that represents such a significant manufacturing shift due to cost and timing, especially for an automaker as enormous as GM. This new strategy is also an about-face from the automaker’s EV-only stance just over a year ago.

Manufacturing challenges aside, offering hybrids is a means of meeting rising fuel economy and emissions standards during GM’s EV transition. It would make sense from a sales and marketing perspective since American households are moving to hybrids, not EVs, according to a study by S&P Global Mobility.

Regarding the competitiveness of the Chevy Malibu, GM began planning the next-generation Malibu back in late 2022, likely for the 2026 model year. On a typical product cycle, the current-gen Malibu that’s been around since the 2015 model year will be overdue for a redesign by then.

It will come none too soon for a sedan that has remained popular and noteworthy despite its age. Whether it will offer a hybrid variant or not is anyone’s guess.

About Chevrolet Malibu

The 2024 Chevy Malibu arrives as the ninth model year of the ninth-generation nameplate with just a handful of changes and updates over the 2023 Malibu. One of those includes the 2024 Chevy losing the standard spare wheel and tire combo, which was replaced by GM’s tire inflator kit. Here’s everything new and different for the 2024 Malibu.

According to J.D. Power, the Chevy Malibu has top-quality seats, currently the best in its segment, and a new study finds that the Chevy Malibu is one of the best new cars for the money.

“Midsize sedans aren’t as popular as they used to be, but they still provide a strong combination of passenger comfort and useful cargo space,” said iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer. “And the models on this list also deliver excellent value.”

Production of the 2024 Chevy Malibu is currently scheduled to end on May 30th, with production of the 2025 Malibu set to start on May 31st at the GM Fairfax plant in Kansas City.

About The Numbers

Vince grew up in a GM family, likes manuals, and thinks this is the golden age of the automobile.

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Comments

  1. GM had a winner but killed it themselves by under powering it with a 1.5L engine and snowmobile transmission that no one wants! Another stupid move by GM to force their green woke cr@p on their customers. GM needs new leadership now!

    Reply
    1. GM will be its own demise, they haven’t built an interesting or good vehicle, other than the Corvette in years. They called the Malibu a family car, while it could seat 4 fairly comfortably, it didn’t have enough trunk space for a weekend trip, let alone anything longer. The sad part about the smaller engines, is they don’t get significantly better mileage, while being underpowered

      Reply
      1. OMG, no one hates GM more than the GM authority comment section…..

        Reply
        1. Mediocrity is and will be called out. GM’s decisions of late have been off the rails bad

          Reply
  2. Not sure who is making the power train decisions at GM but should be fired.

    Reply
    1. Remember there was a GMA article not too long ago about the female at GM who is in charge of this and she was defending the decisions to move to Tony engines. She even said there was no customer feedback against this shift to under power their vehicles. Well here it is lady! If you had been paying attention there have been many passionate comments on this site criticizing the move to all tiny turbos in the Equinox, Traverse, Malibu, and Trax. Especially, the elimination of the 2.0, 3.6, and 4.3 engines. That person should apply at Bud Light.

      Reply
      1. Sorry for the typo, should say tiny engines.

        Reply
      2. To the down voter, this is all true and based on past GMA articles and comments. Read the archives if you don’t believe it.

        Reply
  3. As predicted by some, GM will sabotage the Malibu so customers won’t buy it and then point to slumping sales to justify killing it. So sad.

    Reply
    1. I don’t think it even crosses GM’s mind, or any other manufacturers’ minds, to do such a thing. If they want to stop making a product, they don’t need an excuse; they can just pull the plug. After all, Haah-vahd MBAs know FAR more about what the public wants to buy than the public itself.

      Reply
    2. They were supposed to kill it 4 years ago…

      Reply
  4. I hope there is a new Malibu hybrid coming out soon…it doesn’t help that this car desperately needs a refresh in design and engines while there at it they should make a Buick sedan as well just to say that they have it and no more wimpy engines! GM was never number one but they once sold a vehicle of every type why should Cadillac be the only ones to sell a profitable sedan.

    Reply
  5. It’s deliberately being sabotaged with one weak engine with lowest in class power, a crap CVT and a design that dates back to 2016 or 9 going on 10 year old body style. When a car gets this old with no meaningful changes lower sales are the result. We truly are in Malaize era II with the number one problem being total lack of choices in vehicles followed by so many quality control issues and recalls.

    Reply
  6. So where the heck is the new one? We’ve seen camo’d versions of it…

    Reply
  7. So sad, no new updates, terrible engine and transmission choice, and no marketing to help it sell. When is the last time ANYONE saw a Malibu car commercial?????

    Reply
    1. Why spend money on advertising when everybody here agrees that is not a competitive product?

      Reply
    2. First you are stating that the Chevy Malibu is a terrible car. Then, why spend money advertising a non competitive product. Maybe advertising a big discount would be money well spent.

      Reply
  8. There’s one sitting on a dealers lot 2051miles from my house

    Reply
  9. Camrys, Accords and other sedans selling all over America.
    The Malibu has a storied history. Too bad Mary has turned it into the most generic looking, underpowered, Dollar Store vehicle in its class.
    If HER name was “Mark” … he would have been gone long ago .
    Investors will soon force the Board’s hand .

    Reply
  10. Redo the interior, add the 2.0 LSY & 9spd trans back should help.

    Reply
  11. Same song, another verse. Let Regal, Impala, Camaro & others die the same slow death. Bet the Japanese & South Korean brands are losing big $ on those hundreds of thousands of sedans they sell daily, NOT! Not everyone wants a $60 to $100k pickup or suv. Lower case gm is doomed when this bubble burst.

    Reply
    1. Son working on masters at Mississippi State University & retired wife & I visit often. Streets covered with coeds in sedans, not Malibus. Guys in Big 3 pickups of course. Small hometown in NE MS adults in large suv,s, pickups. HS kids in sedans & pickups. Son drives 17 Camaro RS, wife 20 Equinox, & me 02 Impala 3.8 with 197k carefree 31mpg miles on road. All bought new. Lifetime Chevy guy as small town grandfather got me hooked on Chevy when he showed me my first Chevelle SS 396 at age 13 in 1968. Those were the days. Need more “car guys” running big G, GM again!

      Reply
      1. “….& me 02 Impala 3.8 with 197k carefree 31mpg miles on road.”

        Like music to my ears Davy. I worked on that generation Impala. We had a very good team of experienced people on that program.

        We all knew it would sell well while it moved through the development process. Market research was very positive after we tweaked it a bit.

        Thanks!

        Reply
  12. Davy I don’t know where you live but I hardly see sedans anymore everything it truck, SUV,or CUV…I hardly ever see a new Camry and Nissan is going to stop making the Altima another car I barley see. I agree car companies should offer everything but you don’t need an Impala, and Malibu for sale at the same time I think the new Impala would have sold well without the Malibu around people as usual saw the cheaper option and bought that instead I mean even Subarus sedan model has been heavily updated and is AWD but it still doesn’t sell that well.

    Reply
  13. If price is taken into consideration it is the only Chevrolet I would buy.

    Reply
  14. Yearly, not daily. My first car at 15 was a 65 El Camino (327 auto), followed by 66 Malibu (283 power glide), 72 Malibu (350 2v auto) 72 SS350 4v auto. Also restored 64 Malibu SS vert (283 powerglide) & 70 Chevelle SS396 4 speed. Then went to Camaros, 75 RS & 79 Z28 & 84 Monte Carlo SS, 305 HO auto. Lots of style, power train choices in those days.

    Reply
    1. Davy those where the good days to buy a car unfortunately you’ll never see that again… corporate greed dictates that the car companies should only build what sells and minimize everything to one maybe two engine options and if there is a second engine option it’s a lot more money. Also back then a car didn’t take almost a decade to pay off. That was a different time I wish I lived it I tell my father all the time you might be old now but when you where young things where better.

      Reply
  15. Question for everyone:

    I have a son with a ‘16 Chevy Malibu Hybrid. It turned out to be a great car for his purposes.
    How come the 1.8L Hybrid engine used in this car (from model years ‘16-‘19 I believe), have not been used in another GM vehicle? My son typically gets 42+ mpg. It definitely is an upgrade over the current Malibu power train. He has over 100,000 miles on it.

    Also, where was this engine manufactured?

    Reply
    1. Is that 42mpg city or hwy?

      I’ve gotten 45mpg avg hwy with the non-hybrid Malibu with the 1.5.

      Reply
      1. That’s 42 mpg overall with about 70 mpg.

        If memory serves me, that car and engine was rated something like 47/47.

        Reply
  16. Question for everyone:

    I have a son with a ‘16 Chevy Malibu Hybrid. It turned out to be a great car for his purposes.
    How come the 1.8L Hybrid engine used in this car (from model years ‘16-‘19 I believe), have not been used in another GM vehicle? My son typically gets 42+ mpg. It definitely is an upgrade over the current Malibu power train. He has over 100,000 miles on it.

    Also, where was this engine manufactured?

    Reply
  17. Do anybody remember this car wasn’t built during the strike?, I guess not..

    Reply
  18. When I needed to replace my wrecked 2017 Malibu in October 2023, there were very few new malibus at dealers. Found a used 2021 with 1.5/cvt. I was skeptical, but bought it anyway. Very happy so far. Peppier and slightly better mileage than the 2017. Need cars on the lots to sell them.

    Reply
  19. You can’t sell something that is not on a lot. Most dealerships are only stocking the CUV’s and SUV’s. Not all buyers want one of those POS, so they go to a Toyota, Nissan, Honda or Hyundia dealer where they have PLENTY of sedans on the lots.

    Reply
    1. The Malibu is not a POS it’s basic transportation… something that desperately needs to come back in this country not everyone needs flash and 300hp for most this is just fine for everyday driving to work and back . But that’s the problem in America today and don’t tell me that way back when we had this and that for every SS Malibu sold years ago the regular Malibu outsold it two to one, I actually miss my 1997 Chevy lumina good had mileage and reliable I wish I still had it.

      Reply
      1. Boy your not kidding. The 1990’s was ike a golden era compared to the dumpster fire of the 2020’s. You could walk into a Chevy dealer and buy a Malibu with 4 or 6 cylinder engine choices, a mid size Lumina with two different V6 engines and even a full sized RWD Caprice or Impala SS with an LT1 V8. And these cars could often be had for 13-18K brand new. I had two 1996 Lumina LS sedans, one black and one white and loved them both. The white one was a 3100 and the black one had the 3.4 Twin Dual Cam engine and sport suspension. Both were good reliable vehicles that were cheap to maintain and drive well over 100K. I sure miss those days

        Reply
  20. 8 year design with a lawn mower engine. Where’s the love, GM?

    Reply
  21. its as if everyone forgot that there was a strike during this timeframe which impacted the stock of the Malibu.

    Reply
  22. Remember 4 years ago when they said they were ending production???

    Reply
  23. The first mistake was dropping the Impala (V6), the second mistake was dropping the big 4 in the Malibu and the third mistake is not offering the small hybrid 4 compact sedan (Monza/Cavalier) sold in China and imported to Mexico. Why? because Mary Barra is a moron. GM misses the mark again. They used to be the trendsetter. Now they can’t even keep up. The US is last for GM. It’s a shame.

    Reply
  24. I have a 2024 LT2 Malibu, does anybody have one that they complained about the cabin, excessive 19in. tire noise from day one, that GM and the (3) dealerships won’t come up with a fix. That could be reason why there not selling, if they test drove them, which I didn’t on mine I ordered it so right now I’m stuck with it.

    Reply

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