Chevrolet News:General Motors Quietly Drops The Malibu Eco

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

October 11, 2013

This week saw General Motors quietly announcing that Malibu Eco will not be returning for 2014. The reason given is that the 2014 Malibu 2.5 achieves the same fuel economy numbers as the Eco model (25 MPG City/36 MPG Highway) thanks to stop/start technology.

The Chevrolet Malibu Eco was never a big seller in the Malibu. According to The Detroit News, the Eco model only made up of 10 percent of total sales last year. Add in the fact that many reviews criticized the Malibu Eco's real-world fuel economy didn't match up to the EPA ratings, and easy to see why the Eco was given the boot.

Chevrolet spokesman Chad Lyons tells Motoramic that GM "will continue to offer eAssist technology on other Chevrolet and GM products, and is "committed to this technology."

Source: The Detroit News, Motoramic

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[Drew Dowdell]

HAH! And that was the car Dan rushed out in the first place and damaged the brand with!

[David]

Go to the VOLT as your Hybrid platform and drop eAssist in everything. Pathetic platform eAssist. I would never buy an eAssist car unless they gave me one.

[daves87rs]

No surprise....it was weak to begin with...

[pow]

It was a mild-hybrid priced like a full-hybrid that got worse MPG than a competitor's non-hybrid.

[Cory Wolfe]

It won't be missed. Chevy should have never introduced this car with that as the sole offering initially.

[ocnblu]

Good riddance to the complication and questionable purpose of e-Assist.

[regfootball]

on fuelly, the 2.5 equipped Malibus are showing very nice mpg. Upgrades over the 2.4 from 2012, and more or less similar or equal to the Eco 2.4's.

Autoblog has a drive review of the 2014's covering all the upgrades to powertrain, suspension and steering, and the interior and stop start etc.

With the improved characteristics and improved mpg, I think this Malibu may rebuild some cred here. I think this car has the chance of delivering 30 mpg consistent to a lot of drivers, and the 13 was nice to drive to me. If the 14 is improved in driving and I know first hand the looks of the front end are a big improvement, i think this combined with the Impala, Chevy will be ok in larger sedans.

I like the notion of the 14 Impala with it's larger size but the 2.5 Imp renders only 31 mpg highway....the Malibu is 36 (they could have claimed 37 apparently), that is a fairly substantial difference.

I still have no issue with eAssist in concept. Perhaps the reengineering of it again will yield some big results. As it was, it was too hard a sell for the money.

[Rvinyl.com]

What does everybody think about the Cruze Eco? Does it run on the same platform as the Malibu?

[ocnblu]

Malibu is on Epsilon II, I believe, and Cruze is on Delta II. The Cruze Eco is a simpler concept than e-Assist. e-Assist is a conglomeration of components designed solely to reduce trunk room, add complication under the hood with a giant alternator, and produce vaporous fuel economy gains. It is a junk system.

Cruze Eco achieves its higher mileage ratings through thinner sheetmetal, lightweight wheels, low rolling resistance tires, active grille shutters, underbody shields and (afaik) different transmission gearing. Nothing hocus-pocus (or complicated) about it. However, even the Cruze Eco, with its simple formula for success in the chase for higher mileage ratings bragging rights, is not that much more economical than a normal model Cruze. The new diesel model is the way to go if one is interested in meaningful mileage gains... if only it were available with a six speed manual transmission...

Not sure what is on the list of modifications for the '14 Corolla Eco v. a normal LE model, will have to read up on that. I am sure it is nothing groundbreaking.

Edited October 12, 2013 by ocnblu

[Drew Dowdell]

Ocn got it before I did.. and I can confirm the different transmission gearing. The Eco Cruze models have a taller 6th gear.

[David]

Local Chevy Dealership in Kirkland had two of these ECO models with eAssist on sale with a big sign saying save $15K off MSRP.

Pretty sad day when you have to discount so heavily an auto and tarnish the reputation due to stupid Executive thinking.

[smk4565]

HAH! And that was the car Dan rushed out in the first place and damaged the brand with!

Not only that, but they tried it back in 07 on the Saturn Aura, the eAssist thing just isn't catching on. But GM likes to repeat mistakes.

[David]

Never understood why they feel they have to move forward with a bad idea/failed technology. I would think it would be cheaper to pay off the suppliers, recycle the parts and move on with better new technology that gets it right.

[Intrepidation]

One would think GM would have given up on its Mild Hybrid/e-Assist systems. They have never lived up to their expectations.

[Z-06]

When there are no 100% efforts, the results are apparent.

[Drew Dowdell]

e-Assist does well in the right application. 25 city and 36+mpg highway in something as big and heavy as an LaX is not bad for a base model.

The problems is those applications are limited. I might have worked ok in the Theta CUVs and in the Regal/Malibu if they used a smaller engine.