Chevy's $26K Malibu Eco Challenges Hybrid Formula

Chevy's $26K Malibu Eco Challenges Hybrid Formula

General Motors Co. has been down the “mild hybrid” road before – and crashed through the guardrail, with its less-expensive take on the hybrid-electric vehicle formula losing out to Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius and its higher-cost, higher-efficiency design. But the post-recession worm has turned in several different directions. Now Toyota’s floundering, the comparative high cost of hybrids of its ilk isn’t expanding the market and the nation seems to have calmed down about $4-a-gallon gasoline. Against this context, GM sees the time as right to launch another, better generation of mild hybrid and gambles the combination of price and fuel economy for its 2013 $25,995 Malibu Eco (above) will be a more compelling sell this time around.

Chevrolet said Tuesday the 2013 Malibu Eco – redesigned and restyled but still based on a revised version of the company’s global midsize front-wheel-drive architecture – will deliver an estimated 38-miles-per-gallon highway fuel-economy rating from the Environmental Protection Agency. The company put the car’s price and projected highway fuel-efficiency in context with three “full” hybrid (and one diesel) family sedan competitors to show the Malibu Eco does more for less. “Malibu Eco’s highway efficiency is comparable the segment’s popular full hybrids and diesels, but delivered at a lower price,” Chevrolet said in a release.

The 2013 Malibu Eco’s 38 mpg for $25,995 (including destination) compares with the 2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid that costs $3,400 more ($29,395) and offers a 36-mpg highway rating. Toyota’s 2012 Camry Hybrid costs $665 more than the Malibu Eco and offers a 1-mpg better highway rating. Hyundai Motors America’s Sonata Hybrid costs $26,545 and carries a 40-mpg highway rating. The diesel-engine 2012 Volkswagen of America Passat also comes with a 40-mpg highway number but costs $27,895 with an automatic transmission, the only transmission available for the 2013 Malibu Eco. The Eco 'Bu will only net a 26-mpg city rating from the EPA, compared to 43 mpg for the Camry Hybrid and 41 mpg for the Fusion Hybrid.

The new Malibu comes to this place as the first Chevrolet-badged vehicle to leverage GM’s new eAssist mild-hybrid system that boosts the efficiency of the Malibu’s direct-injected 2.4-liter 4-cylinder by imparting stop-start functionality, regenerative braking and electric assist, all through relative simplicity of a motor-generator connected via belt to the engine rather than the more-complex, multi-motor hybrid systems of the competition. As opposed to GM’s earlier mild-hybrid efforts, at the heart of the eAssist system is a more powerful lithium-ion battery pack rather than lower-performance nickel-metal hydride batteries. The company will include a 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty for the Malibu Eco.

The 2013 Malibu Eco also uses other efficiency-optimizing components that will not be found on standard versions of the new-generation Malibu, including an aluminum hood and rear bumper beam and low-mass mats under the carpets and dash that help trim about 130 pounds from the Eco. The car also employs the undercarriage-smoothing efforts and active-closing grille shutters GM launched for the Buick LaCrosse with eAssist and also uses for the Chevy Cruze Eco. The Eco is the first trim level that will be sold when the 2013 Malibu goes on sale in the first quarter of next year – a timing GM pulled ahead by several months to better compete with the latest new high-mileage models in the segment. The car will be built at GM’s assembly plant in Fairfax, Kan., as well as at the company’s Detroit Hamtramck complex, where the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt also is built. The new-generation Malibu is set to be sold in almost 100 countries, GM said.

Bill Visnic:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter