One problem related to battery dead has been reported for the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu based on all problems reported for the 2016 Malibu.
When vehicle is placed in park, get "place in park" message on dash. If not cleared, dash lights stay on and drain battery leaving driver stranded. This could lead to a very unsafe condition, depending on where this occurs. Doing a search of the first 70 claims on your site; 30% of them addressed this issue. Why has nothing been done to rectify this unsafe condition? claim #'s looked 11385598, 113384695, 11377868, 11377077,11373245, 11372867, 11367012, 11365172, 11363789. 11363275, 11361450, 11360384, 11360062, 11355051, 11353844, 11352179, 11351612, 11351422, 11350951, 11349692, 11348857. There is a service bulletin # 19-na-206 by gm (see attachment) on this issue, but it does not cover the repair under warranty, even though it effects several years and makes. This would seem to be a manufacturer defect or qc problem, not something induced by the operator. Though no deaths or injuries have been reported by this problem, one could speculate there may have been some or could be. Usually the question of your battery being dead is not asked at the death or injury site. This issue can not always be duplicated at the dealership, so is often turned away. This particular vehicle will do this multiple times and than stop for awhile, than act up again. Each time it has been taken in to be looked at, there are no codes, and the symptom can not be duplicated. Drive it home and it will happen again, or not. Last time it took twenty minutes of turning car on and off, shifting in and out of park, etc to get car to sense it was indeed in park. I am submitting this report for a friend but would like all follow-up information to pass onto him.