GM: Fuel standards hurt U.S. automakers

DETROIT, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Higher fuel-economy standards would "effectively hand the truck and SUV market over to the imports," a vice chairman of General Motors Corp. said.

Proposed standards would limit GM's ability to build as many large vehicles as customers demand, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said in a blog posting titled "Season's Rantings."

Large SUVs and pickups are a key part of GM's plan to improve North American profits, The Detroit Free Press reported.

A group of corporate chief executives and retired military generals called for an annual 4 percent increase in standards, saying the goal was needed for energy security.

This proposal on top of an existing fuel-economy program will give Toyota and Honda a leg up in making larger vehicles because they have earned years of fuel-economy "credits" that they can now "cash in," Lutz said.

The Japanese automakers "have earned years of accumulated credits from their fleets of formerly very small cars," Lutz said. "They can afford to go bigger, which they're doing now by the way, and they'd be able to move up and fill the segments we'd be forced to vacate."