SPY PICS: Next-gen Malibu

The next generation of Chevy Malibu has surfaced in Germany while testing, as these spy photos reveal.

Due to replace the current car in North America from 2016, the new Malibu will also provide a fairly faithful template for Holden's version, assuming the local GM subsidiary continues to sell Malibu here.

The Holden Malibu is one of the slower-selling models in the VFACTS medium passenger car segment. Toyota's Camry is the champ – having sold 17,689 up to the end of October, and placed a distant second is Mazda6 on 5035.

For the year to date the Malibu has sold 1444 units, which is barely half the number for Ford's Mondeo — overdue for replacement – and roughly a thousand units behind the Volkswagen Passat and Hyundai i40. Malibu is narrowly outsold by Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, Skoda Octavia and Volkswagen Jetta.

In other words, the Malibu currently struggles to outsell rivals from lesser-known brands and is well astern of some of the better known competitors. It begs the question, will Holden persist with Malibu in the post-manufacturing era from 2017 onwards?

The anticipated replacement for the Commodore when production ends at Holden's Elizabeth place will be a model based on the next-generation Opel Insignia. That model will need to be significantly larger than the current (mid-sized) Insignia to retain buyers who have been previously attracted to Commodore's family-friendly large-car packaging. Even so, the new Insignia-based replacement may not be large enough to warrant a Malibu stablemate that's also set to grow larger than the current model.

But the precedent, if there is one, will be in Holden's small car range, where it's rumoured Holden will sell Cruze and Astra alongside each other in local showrooms. If Cruze and Astra can get along in the same showrooms, maybe there's hope for Malibu and Insignia/Commodore?