Report: GM cancels next-gen full-sized SUVs including Tahoe, Escalade

Originally earmarked for arrival in 2011, the next-generation of full-size SUVs from General Motors may never arrive at all. Word of their cancellation has emerged, and now the future of the current models is in doubt as well.

Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman and head of product development, said that "it would have been very difficult in today's environment to spend a couple of billion dollars to do a replacement" to GM's full-size SUV lineup in the current automotive market, reports The New York Times.

The next-generation of SUVs hadn't been expected to get the axe so soon. However, plans to move the Tahoe, Yukon, Escalade and others over to the smaller and more car-like Lambda platform have been brewing for some time now, and this may merely be another interpretation of that plan: the Tahoe and Suburban may well live on, but as more moderate versions of their formerly excessive selves.

What will happen to the current-generation large SUVs is likewise unknown. They could live out their tenure in decreasing production until the 2012 model-year replacements arrive, or they could begin a slow phase-out as their market relevance wanes. Already GM is beginning to idle or close the plants that build the trucks, meaning the existing stock is at levels GM doesn't want to exceed.