General Motors Corp. said Thursday it was halting development of its next-generation pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles amid soaring gasoline prices.
“We are delaying indefinitely work on the next generation of pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) until we have a better idea of where the market is going to be,” said Tom Wilkinson, a GM spokesman.
Sales of fuel-hungry trucks and SUVs have plunged in the United States recently in the face of record-high gasoline prices that have shot up about 25 percent in the past year.
GM's new trucks had not been due to reach the market until 2011 and 2012, according to plans GM released last year during its contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers.
“We think there will still be a market for full-sized pickup trucks in the future but it will be focused primarily on people who need their trucks for work. It won't be like 2002 or 2003,” Wilkinson said.
“We're going to keep working on improvements to the current trucks,” he added.
Earlier this month, GM chairman and chief executive Richard Wagoner announced GM planned to close over the next two years four assembly plants — one in Canada, one in Mexico and two in the United States — that currently build pickup trucks and SUVs.
At the same time, GM also announced it was reviewing the future of the SUV-based Hummer brand.
No decision has been made on Hummer's fate, though Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing, recently told AFP that GM would like to make a “quick” decision about the Hummer's future.
Selling the brand to another company or an investment group is one possibility, he said.
