Input Stories

New tariffs are forcing auto manufacturers in the U.S. to make tough calls.

Volkswagen: “Volkswagen has instructed its U.S. dealers to include a separate line item on vehicle price stickers that reflects the 25% import tariff on vehicles sourced from Europe and Mexico” (MotorIllustrated).

• While the models Volkswagen makes at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant, such as the gas-powered Atlas Cross Sport and the electric ID.4, will not be subject to the tariffs, “imports such as the Jetta, Taos and Tiguan, which are assembled in Mexico and Germany, will carry the additional charge.” 
• That means the manufacturer may have to raise the prices of those models by several thousand dollars, MotorIllustrated reports.

Ford: Carmaker Ford is bracing for a May announcement of tariffs on auto parts, which is likely to drive up the cost of producing vehicles (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).

• At a Ford dealership in Dearborn, Michigan, one longtime car dealer is anxious about President Trump’s “plan to tariff parts next month, such as the engines that Ford produces in Canada for trucks built in the U.S. ‘If it’s a V-8 engine … that’s gonna add 6% to 7% to the truck,’ he said.”

Pausing exports, too: “Audi, the luxury division of Volkswagen, also paused exports of cars to the U.S. from Europe, telling dealers to sell whatever they still had on their lots,” according to The New York Times (subscription).

What they’re asking: At a meeting Monday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, representatives from automakers including Volkswagen and BMW “urged politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to lower tariffs,” The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports in another article.