«

»

2013 Chevy Malibu Eco Review

ADVERTISEMENT

I would like to introduce the all-new 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco to you. It is about to be released later this year. It is aggressively sophisticated, practically elegant, it instils quiet confidence and it is so efficient in motion. It will not only wow the owners of the world’s finest midsize sedans, it will get an open-mouth admiration from Malibu’s critics.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco is beautifully designed, and paired with some cutting-edge technologies. There is an eAssist technology that intuitively conserves power, and stores it in a lithium-ion battery when it’s not needed. In the eAssist system there is a generator in place of the regular alternator. The generator is connected to a 32 lithium-ion battery which is housed in a 65-pound battery pack located around the rear seat. The electric motor system contributes 15 HP to the crankshaft. The electric motor belt’s duty life is about 75,000 miles.

How do you power the lithium-ion battery? It is so simple; all you have to do is to drive, and the battery charges. By doing your normal routine, the battery stores energy. The energy saved later gives the engine some electric boost that is used during various driving scenarios such as when climbing a hill or during a heavy acceleration. Whenever the car stops at red light or sits in gridlock traffic, the engine shuts off and the battery-powered generator comes up. The eAssist seamlessly switches from using gas to using energy to power accessories for fuel conservation.

The new 2013 Malibu Eco’s ECOTEC 2.4L Direct Injection 4-cylinder gas engine is rated at 182 HP. When you combine the engine and motor, what you get is a smoother, smarter and more intelligent drive that offers an impressive 25 MPG and 37 MPG in the city and on the highway respectively.

The interior of the Malibu Eco 2013 has an upscale cabin, with contrasting colours and classy stitching. As well as a basketball graining (this sounds awful), which contributes to dimension and depth. There is also a new lateral dashboard that glows in ice-blue ambient colour. There is a touch screen display that sat over a six-inch-deep bin. The front seat is well cushioned and nicely scalloped. Absolute comfort can be guaranteed at the back seat for two passengers with a wider front and rear tracks resulting in a 3.2-inch gain in shoulder room.

2013 Malibu pros and cons

The 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco electrically power steering is not that effective, but the tracking and weighting is just fine. The regenerative braking that helps charge the batteries is also impressive with its lack of pedal feel. No pulses, no soft spots, just firm, linear travel. The battery pack lies between the two rear wheel wells, it takes air from the cockpit and it is cooled by a fan in the rear parcel shelf. Although the trunk space is one cubic foot larger than that of the 2012 model, we are not happy that the tubes and snorkels reduced the trunk space by two cubic feet.

When you want to build a car to meet people’s needs, you must act on feedbacks. This is exactly what was done with the Malibu Eco 2013, and the result we got was a better styled car with more safety features and higher performance level. There is going to be a lot of sleepless nights for the rivals soon.

2013 Malibu eco2013 Malibu eco 2013 malibu eco dasboard2013 malibu

No related posts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>