As we’ve seen on more than one occasion throughout history, tariffs can have a major impact on just about any industry, including the automotive sector. Aside from tariffs helping save Harley-Davidson from its Japanese competition years ago, recently-passed tariffs by the Biden Administration will likely keep Chinese EVs out of America altogether, and during the previous Trump Administration, they even led to the cancelation of plans to bring the Ford Focus Active to the U.S. Now that Donald Trump has won the 2024 U.S. election, more changes are likely in the cards – including, potentially, tariffs on countries such as Mexico, which could have a big impact on Ford’s operations in that country.
Trump previously stated that he was considering imposing tariffs on vehicles imported from Mexico into the U.S. – ranging from 100-200 percent – which could have an impact on Blue Oval models such as the Ford Maverick, Ford Bronco Sport, and Ford Mustang Mach-E, which are all built south of the border. Recently, Business Insider expounded upon the potential impacts these tariffs may have on the automotive industry, if they indeed come to fruition.
For years, automakers have been building vehicles in Mexico and exporting them to other markets as a way to save money via both lower labor and parts costs, which means that these proposed tariffs could easily offset those savings – and, according to analysts, prove “highly disruptive” to the entire U.S. automotive industry, given how many models are currently produced there. In fact, around one-third of GM and Stellantis’ full-size truck production occurs in Mexico at the moment.
The U.S. free trade agreement with Mexico is up for review in 2026, and currently allows companies to import vehicles into America without having to pay additional duties, so any tariffs could obviously halt future investments by automakers in Mexico. Additionally, lawmakers are concerned about Chinese automakers building plants in Mexico and using it as a “backdoor” to skirt the aforementioned tariffs on those vehicles. In any event, if these new tariffs do come to light, automakers would face some difficult decisions, whether that be to pass the cost down to customers or spend a tremendous amount of money to shift production back to the U.S., though nothing is set in stone at the moment.
Comments
If those tariffs come to pass, the auto industry would collapse and say hello to Great Recession 2.0. Trump voters didn’t see this one coming now did they?
So you would rather see your kids, or your friends kids DIE from drugs.. Ok.. typical union thug. There will be NO TARIFFS if Mexico stops the flow of drugs.. but since you do NOT pay attention, you wouldn’t know that.
Your right on target
Ur stupid!!!
Blame the company that sent your jobs out of the US to start with. The auto industry didn’t collapse his last term and it won’t now. You can scare liberals easy enough but true American workers don’t need Mexico to thrive.
Doubtful – Look at all the foreign auto companies who competitively manufacture here… In SC, we have the largest BMW factory in the world…
The way things are tracking there won’t be an auto industry left in the US if companies continue to assign high volume production to low wage countries while starving US plants of new product.
That’s also what 1000+ economists, 14 Nobel laureate among them, said about the tariff on China during his first term.
thanks to the UAW for making it so expensive for auto makers to build them in the US so they moved production to Mexico
Gee, no discernible price difference between the F-150 (made in America) vs. RAM and Chevy/GM pickups, a third of which are made in Mexico…
Hmm, makes you wonder if tariffs really lead to higher consumer prices (as some prattle on about) or do fat cat executives pocket the lower labor costs in bonuses and other compensation at the expense of the American worker…
Pretty much. If anything F150 is cheaper. You know what else is cheaper? Tundra, made in America.
Ii seems that “The lonely Ranger” is going to get all the Yanki folks into hot water; with his punishing tariffs; though..
GOD bless America ?!!..
Make them in the USA or leave them in Mexico!!
America 1st!!
Dont blame Trump! Blame Ford for taking our jobs to Mexico and the greedy unions. In the long run it will benefit the US workers and the auto companies that build here. America First. Common sense stuff.
I have mixed feelings on Tariffs but I have strong feeling about how companies have and continue to send good jobs out of the USA putting our workers on the unemployment lines and also weakening our own abilities to produce products. When I was younger we made the products the whole world wanted to buy and now its hard to find products made here and it also appears we learned nothing from what happened as a result of Covid. Anyone see any prices getting lower with most necessities made overseas?
Amen Dwayne D!
Maybe then US citizens will start buying the cars and trucks that we produce in this country!
Ford and the other makers will have a few EV plants that they have built and will not be used.
Bring the tooling from the Mexican plants, install into the EV plants, hire back laid off and new American workers, and start building here!
Do not see why this is a problem.
Sales would probably go up, as some of us would not buy a vehicle made in Mexico.
If Ford, etc. could flush billions of dollars in pursuit of their magic EV unicorns and not bat an eyelash, then on-shoring automotive production should be no problem at all.
Because that doesn’t line up with the globalist agenda.
Quality would return or Ford is no more and I will NEVER Buy out of America made.
When went full Aluminum and so much technical Ford lost me!
Be refreshing If New Company’s of American Started up in Any old Auto Manufactoring Place.
* Voter’s made there choice so will Auto Company’s fail or LISTEN
We want the older vehicles at reasonsble
“COST !!” & “QUALITY !!”
* FIRE THIS HEAD CEO
– N O W –
Remember, Trump plans to slash EV mandates and other job-killing regulations bestowed on the automakers by Biden. This will free up billions that can be used to retool plants to repatriate production. Trump also promised to lower the corporate tax rate for companies that repatriate jobs.
It’s time for Ford to fish or cut bait. Is America come first or corporate Greed.
Lots of hype about Trump will do. Time will tell. If you’ve lived long enough you’ve seen the pendulum swing back and forth. Most consumers buy based on likes and dislikes. They have no idea where their vehicle is made.
Move production back to the US were it should be. Problem solved.
Forcing the automakers to think harder about producing vehicles in the US is exactly the point. Instead of pushing investment to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor and lax regulations, the automakers need to see the benefits of building vehicles in the US.
Those factories have a dramatically positive effect on the US middle class. We need more of that.
Amazing how many experts we have in this country on manufacturing and taxes, policies, regulations. How about the Chips act, infrastructure bill, manufacturers reinvesting back into USofA all still creating jobs that Trump will benefit from. Hold your breath we got a long long 4 years.