High fuel prices and toughening fuel economy standards has forced Chrysler to axe plans for a production version of the Imperial concept that was unveiled at last year’s Detroit Auto Show. There were reports that the Imperial would enter production at a Chrysler plant in Canada but in an announcement made to the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) this month, officials revealed that plans have been shelved.

The US government is currently voting on new standards that would require automakers to achieve fleet average fuel economy levels of 35mpg for both cars and trucks. In an interview with Automotive News, Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff revealed that these reasons helped “doom a car that would have been substantially bigger than Chrysler's largest sedan, the 300C,” and that “it would have been irresponsible to bring a vehicle like that to the market at this time.”

This comes as a major blow to workers at the Brampton plant, where the car was expected to be built. In March the CAW agreed to receive pay cuts in exchange for a promise from Chrysler to invest $700 million in the new project.