Tariffs are coming to car brands in the US. It will be hardest on those who import the most and manufacture the least in the big country when the tariffs come into effect on April 2.
The recently introduced 25 percent tariff on foreign-made cars in the United States is expected to have significant economic consequences for a number of car brands.
Led by Donald Trump, the US government intends to crack down on cars assembled outside the US.
This applies regardless of whether the cars come assembled from Canada, Mexico or Europe, which already receives the vast majority of cars to the United States.
However, there are already holes in the cheese. Or rather, the customs wall. Because if the car brands choose to move production to the USA, they can avoid the tariffs.
"If you build your car in the United States, there are no tariffs," President Trump said at a press conference earlier this week.
The tariffs will take effect on April 3, and President Trump has suggested they could be “permanent.” That raises the question of which car brands and models will be hit hardest.
A number of foreign car manufacturers stand to experience a significant decline in their sales in the US as a result of the new tariffs.
This is what the American section of Motor1 writes.
Car brands like Audi, BMW, Lexus, Mazda, and Toyota produce several models that rank low on the list of American-made cars. In any case, the number of locally sourced parts is low to non-existent in several of the cars.
Sports cars in particular are taking a hit. Models like the Mazda MX-5, Subaru BRZ, Toyota GR86 and GR Corolla score just 1 percent on the index of American-made cars.
Several of BMW's top models, such as the M3 sedan, Z4 and the outgoing M8, also have only one percent parts from suppliers in the United States.
In 2024, cars accounted for 28.3 percent of Japan's total exports to the United States. Therefore, Japanese automakers could be particularly hard hit by the new tariffs.
According to Reuters, shares in Nissan, Toyota and Honda already fell by 2.2 percent, 2.7 percent and 3.0 percent respectively after the announcement of the new tariff rate.
Hyundai and Kia both saw a 4.0 percent decline. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said the country will consider "all options" to counter Trump's tariffs.
– Japan is a country that makes the largest investments in the United States, so we wonder whether it makes sense for (Washington) to apply uniform tariffs to all countries.
"This is a view we have expressed and will continue to express," Ishiba said in a speech to parliament.
Trump's 25 percent tariff will likely lead to price increases on foreign-imported cars.
Bob Lutz, former vice president of product development at General Motors, believes that the stricter rules for car imports have been a long time coming.
"The tariffs Trump is imposing simply (roughly) reflect those our largest trading partners have had in place for decades," Lutz tells Motor1.
– There is no doubt that the tariffs will increase the price of non-American cars and result in a decrease in their sales volume. That is the purpose of tariffs.
The EU currently charges a 10 percent tariff on American imported cars and an additional 20 percent VAT.
However, there have been proposals to reduce the tariff from 10 percent to 2.5 percent in an attempt to reduce trade tensions with the United States.
Conversely, American cars have a very poor grip on European consumers. With the sale of Opel, a group like General Motors withdrew completely from Europe in 2017.
Since then, the group has made a half-hearted attempt at a comeback with electric cars from Cadillac. But sales are limited to a very few countries, including Germany, France and Switzerland.
