Volkswagen ID.7 Electric cars were seen in Volkswagen’s leadership (VW) electric fleet in Emden, Germany, February 18, 2025.
Carmen Jaspersen | Reuters
Car manufacturers Volkswagen and Stellantis confirmed that their vehicles made in North America will be released by US President Donald Trump’s new 25% tariffwhile BMW He says he will face the payment, while European car manufacturers are fighting with new trade rules.
The newly returned White House leader has long threatened to stun the tariffs to the main American trade partners, including Canada, Mexico and the EU. Last week, they entered into force of new duties of goods from Mexico, Canada and China.
The threat of imported tariffs has erected a alarm bells in Europe, as vehicles and machines are the largest export of EU -the United States. 2023The EU had a trade excess of 102 billion euros ($ 110.6 billion) in machines and vehicles with USA, and the category made up 41% of exports to America.
However, some of the cars in the region may be able to – at least temporarily – a skirt about new duties. Last week the White House approved one -month tariff delay Car manufacturers whose vehicles are in accordance with the United States-Mexico-Kanada (USCMA) trade agreement between three countries. According to its conditions, if at least 75% of the vehicle parts originate from North America, it can be exempted from New tariffs imposed by imports from Canada and Mexico.
“Our North American VWs of VW are fulfilled by USMac of origin and are exempted from 25% of tariffs,” Volkswagen spokesman said in a statement with an email.
“As a global car manufacturer, we are very closely monitoring development in North America and evaluating all the potential effects on the automotive industry and our company as a result of tariffs announced for the US, Canada, Mexico and the European Union.”
In addition to its leading brand, Volkswagen has various large vehicles, including Skoda, Audi and Bentley.
“We are ready to cooperate with politics creators to find solutions that support the US industry with the preservation of economic opportunities for workers, companies and consumers,” Auto Div told CNBC.
Meanwhile, Stellantis – Known for its jeeps and Dodge vehicles – grateful Trump approved the exemption of the USMac in a statement on Friday and committed to increase his surgery in the United States. Car manufacturer was One of the main companies that gave one month’s exemption From the levy, in front of the so -called reciprocal tariffs that take effect on April 2.
“We share the president’s goal to build more American cars and the creation of permanent American jobs,” the company said at the time. “We look forward to working with him and his team.”
Stellantis shares, which There are more plants in Mexicojumped after Trump announced an exemption for car manufacturers last week. The shares in London increased more than 2%on Monday afternoon.
‘Unstable and complex’ situation
On the other hand, the German Autos Div BMW said that if the USCMA regulation remained, it would be susceptible to levy.
“The current situation regarding the introduction of imported tariffs in North America is very unstable and complex,” BMW said in a statement. “The connection between the import tariff with respect for the USCMA rules is the latest announcement. If this regulation remained in force, the BMW group would be one of the affected companies.”
“Our position remains unchanged: a free trade, which has always been a leading principle for a BMW group, is of enormous importance throughout the world,” the company added. “It is one of the most important growers of growth and progress. Tariffs, on the other hand, interfere with free trade, slow innovations and set a negative spiral on the move. They are eventually harmful to customers, making products more expensive and less innovative.”
In the note to clients on Friday, UBS analysts estimated that 10% of the US BMW sale sales were imported from Mexico at a fairly low price, mainly for companies 2 and 3 series models.
“It is worth pointing out that BMW’s American imports from Mexico were already subject to tariffs before,” they said. “The incremental tariff should, everything else equal, result in the influence of EBIT of ~ 400 million euros (before price increase), relatively small in a group context (4%). The greater potential threat to BMW and other German OEMs is potential tariffs on cars set up in the EU, which is facing April 2.”
Trump excursions and revelations of tariff-oriented tariffs and Mexico-where many global car manufacturers have production facilities-have been unstable stores of car regional shares. Last month, after the president announced the 30-day delay of the levy, the global markets saw Main sale of car sharesThe estimates fall abruptly.
