DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. is still studying which cars to build in Oshawa, Ont., alongside the new Camaro because the U.S. debate on fuel economy means it's difficult to assess the market for rear-wheel-drive cars, company chairman Rick Wagoner says.
"The issue we're looking at in the U.S. is just with the CAFE [Corporate Average Fuel Requirements] - how big those segments are going to be," Mr. Wagoner told a small group of reporters yesterday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
"It really is the $64,000 question."
He said GM has not concluded how sales of rear-wheel-drive vehicles will be affected by the U.S. government move to require fleets to average 35 miles per gallon by 2020. Front-wheel-drive vehicles provide better fuel economy.
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"We've had a range of ideas," he said.
"In the latest developments on fuel economy some seem more feasible than others and others that were pretty good a while ago don't seem as logical now."
But he pointed out that there's likely to be high demand for a six-cylinder version of the Camaro and GM will offer a version.
That's another example of how the North American market is changing amid high gas prices because muscle cars typically have V8 engines with plenty of power.
GM is undertaking a massive redevelopment of its Oshawa car plants as part of the $2.5-billion Beacon Project, which received more than $400-million in financial assistance from the federal and Ontario governments.
One of the two car plants will be closed and the company will construct a leading-edge flexible plant that will allow it to assemble cars off more than one platform or basic underbody.
Sources said the original plan called for GM to manufacture as many as 500,000 rear-wheel-drive vehicles including the Camaro once the plant was running at full tilt by 2010.
Mr. Wagoner would say little about the negotiations this year between GM and the Canadian Auto Workers union.
"I think it's going to be a robust set of negotiations," he said.
CAW president Buzz Hargrove and his leadership are well informed about the issues to be discussed, Mr. Wagoner said.
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