Carmakers have been vocal about the increase to vehicle prices new CAFE regulations will likely cause, with GM execs, including vice chairman Bob Lutz, revealing it could add up to $6,000 to the price of a new car. However, higher vehicle prices are only one negative outcome of the new regulations. A second outcome is the costs to jobs in an already struggling U.S. market. The Detroit 3, along with Toyota, Daimler and five other carmakers, are now urging federal regulators to ease the proposal to hike fuel efficiency standards by 4.5% annually through 2015.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the trade group representing these carmakers, criticized the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposal demanding fleet-wide average fuel economy levels of 31.6mpg for cars and trucks by 2015.

The carmakers claim the proposal would eliminate up to 82,000 auto jobs and reduce auto sales by as many as 856,000 vehicles by 2015, reports The Detroit News. It also said the net cost to society would be $28.9 billion by 2015, and the regulations would hike the cost of light trucks by an average of $4,000.

The NHTSA predicts the new regulations would cost carmakers roughly $47 billion to comply but would also create 8,000 jobs. The NHTSA is also under pressure from Congress to toughen the standard as the original proposal was made assuming fuel prices would average $2.42 a gallon through until 2016.