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FRESNO — A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction delaying enforcement of California’s electric-car mandate in its current form for two years. 

U.S. District Judge Robert Coyle granted the injunction last week after a request from General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler unit. 

The auto makers contend in a pending lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board that the so-called zero-emission-vehicle mandate is illegal because it allows the state to regulate automotive fuel economy, a power reserved for the federal government. 

The board has countered that the program, which had been set to take effect in 2003, addresses clean-air concerns beyond fuel economy. 

The injunction marks the latest legal twist in a battle over the state’s clean-car program that has dragged on for more than a decade. 

Auto industry officials say the ruling postpones the entire program until 2005, pending the resolution of the suit by GM and Chrysler. 

But state officials argue the judge’s order still allows the program to take effect next year, just without a set of changes the board made in 2001 in response to auto industry protests that the earlier version was too tough. 

In 2001, the Air Resources Board decided to allow auto makers to earn credits toward the mandate by rolling out technologies such as hybrid gasoline and electric cars. The cars are already on sale. 

The board allowed the hybrid cars, hoping it would force the industry to continue to perfect zero-emission technologies. 

However, the amendments prompted the lawsuit by GM and Chrysler claiming the program amounted to an illegal state fuel-economy mandate. 

Richard Varenchik, Air Resources Board spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal the board hasn’t decided whether to appeal the injunction. 

“If this stands, we simply take a step back,” he said. “The thing that’s sort of odd about this is it appears the auto makers have litigated against a rule that gave them more options and more flexibility.”