How automakers are responding to Trump's tariffs: Ford employee pricing, VW import fees, and idled Jeep factories
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
- Automakers are responding to Trump's latest round of auto tariffs, announced Wednesday.
- Ford is offering customers an employee discount, while VW is adding an "import fee" to cars.
- Stellantis has paused production at plants in Canada and Mexico and plans to lay off 900 workers.
The Trump administration's fresh wave of tariffs sent shock waves through the automotive industry on Thursday.
Automakers have responded to the impending trade war in various ways, from offering discounts to shoppers who hope to avoid future price increases to adding import fees on vehicles built outside the US.
The "draconian" trade policies, as one Wall Street analyst called them, will also affect autoworkers, with Stellantis pausing production at two assembly plants in Mexico and Canada.
Wall Street believes the tariffs could cost the auto industry more than $80 billion and slash Detroit's Big Three's earnings by up to 60%, thanks to an additional $5,000 of input costs per vehicle.
Here's how the industry is responding:
Ford offers employee discounts to all customers
Ford announced on Wednesday that it would make employee pricing available to consumers for the next two months.
"In times like these, talk is cheap. At Ford, we believe in action," Rob Kaffl, Ford's director of US sales and dealer operations, said in a press release.
Ford
The discount, which ends June 2, applies to all Ford and Lincoln models except Raptors, the 2025 Expedition and Navigator SUVs, and Super Duty trucks.
How much a consumer saves depends on the vehicle, but it could easily run into the thousands. The discount would be applied on top of any other deals or promotions a dealership is offering, the company said.
Ford declined to confirm whether the tariffs would lead to higher sticker prices.
A company spokesperson told Business Insider that it has a 74-day supply of vehicles in stock that haven't been affected by tariffs, compared to 50 days for GM and 24 days for Toyota. (Around 60 days of supply is considered healthy in a normal economic environment.)
Analysts say Ford is one of best best-positioned US automakers to weather the tariffs.
Stellantis paused work at two factories and laid off hundreds at others
Stellantis, which owns former Chrysler brands like Dodge, Jeep, and Ram, has paused production at its Windsor assembly plant in Canada and Toluca assembly plant in Mexico, a spokesperson said Thursday.
Stellantis/© 2024 Stellantis
The Windsor plant, which makes Pacifica/Voyager minivans and Charger Daytona EV muscle cars, will be offline for two weeks. It plans to resume operations the week of April 21.
The Toluca plant, which builds Jeep Compass and Wagoneer S SUVs, will stop work for the rest of April.
The production stoppage at these two facilities resulted in the temporary layoffs of 900 workers from the company's powertrain and stamping plants in Michigan and Indiana, the spokesperon said.
VW tacks on a special fee for tariff-affected cars
Volkswagen
The German automaker Volkswagen has confirmed it will add an "import fee" to the sticker prices of vehicles affected by the tariffs, a spokesperson said. The import fee will be added to the destination charge, which is tacked onto the price of a new car.
It's unclear how much the tariffs will affect the cost of new VW cars as no final pricing decisions have been made, the spokesperson said.
Its top-selling Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport midsize SUVs are made in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Its other top sellers — the Jetta sedan, the Taos SUV, and the Tiguan SUV — are all made in Puebla, Mexico.