diff --git a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
index 22a6f26b4a..c883a0ca3b 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
@@ -2164,7 +2164,13 @@ function start-cluster-autoscaler {
 
     local params="${AUTOSCALER_MIG_CONFIG} ${CLOUD_CONFIG_OPT} ${AUTOSCALER_EXPANDER_CONFIG:---expander=price}"
     params+=" --kubeconfig=/etc/srv/kubernetes/cluster-autoscaler/kubeconfig"
-    sed -i -e "s@{{params}}@${params}@g" "${src_file}"
+
+    # split the params into separate arguments passed to binary
+    local params_split
+    params_split=$(eval "for param in $params; do echo -n \\\"\$param\\\",; done")
+    params_split=${params_split%?}
+
+    sed -i -e "s@{{params}}@${params_split}@g" "${src_file}"
     sed -i -e "s@{{cloud_config_mount}}@${CLOUD_CONFIG_MOUNT}@g" "${src_file}"
     sed -i -e "s@{{cloud_config_volume}}@${CLOUD_CONFIG_VOLUME}@g" "${src_file}"
     sed -i -e "s@{%.*%}@@g" "${src_file}"
diff --git a/cluster/gce/manifests/cluster-autoscaler.manifest b/cluster/gce/manifests/cluster-autoscaler.manifest
index ad199fc51b..db4a2926d3 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/manifests/cluster-autoscaler.manifest
+++ b/cluster/gce/manifests/cluster-autoscaler.manifest
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
                     "--write-status-configmap=true",
                     "--balance-similar-node-groups=true",
 		    "--expendable-pods-priority-cutoff=-10",
-                    "{{params}}"
+                    {{params}}
                 ],
                 "env": [
                     {