US President Donald Trump (78) has implemented his threat to New punitive tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China imposed. Trump and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum negotiated a delay by a month on Monday afternoon, but the tariffs are by no means from the table: Now Mexico Zölle threatens from March 1st, the country does not get involved in a “deal” according to Gusto Trump .
The automotive industry in particular got the consequences of Trump’s customs policy on Monday. The share prices from Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Daimler Truck and other German manufacturers fell in early trade by 5 to 7 percent eachBefore you killed some of your losses. Also for international industry representatives such as Honda, Mazda or Volvo and even for US companies like ford, Tesla and General Motors it went downhill.
The problem of car manufacturers: Many of you and also numerous suppliers use Mexico and Canada as production sites and supply the US market from there. According to the VDA automotive association, German manufacturers and their suppliers alone come together to more than 330 production locations in Mexico. In 2023, German companies had a total of 716,000 cars produced there.
Tologne would make every car more expensive by around $ 6,000
As a result, they are directly from the new import tariffs of 25 percent of all goods and goods from the two neighboring countries of the USA affected. According to the Mexican Association of Automobile Manufacturers (AMIA) and the Canadian association of vehicle manufacturers, almost 90 percent of auto exports from Mexico and Canada have the USA as the destination. Such cars are likely to be an average of $ 6250 in the United States, the Rating Agency Standard & Poor’s had already calculated before Trump’s decision.
German automobile manufacturers had actually chosen North America as an important growth market for themselves, precisely since their paragraphs and results in China recently declined. The new punitive tariffs now falter these plans. According to the Moody’s rating agency, Volkswagen alone has more than 15 percent of the operational result in the fire – this would be up to $ 3 billion.
Who builds what where?
The former VW board member Jürgen Stackmann (63) recently warned In an interview with manager magazine
Before that, that Trump wants to put a “fire belt” around the USA with his tariffs. “If you operate the American market, you have to work within this belt,” said Stackmann.
One List of the US federal authority for road and vehicle security
(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for short NHTSA) shows how much “Made in USA” is actually on the market in the models of individual automobile manufacturers.
It is best to cut Honda and Tesla off, whose cars are equipped with up to 75 percent with parts from the USA. Overall, however, all brands are heavily dependent on imports, including the Germans, as the NHTSA list shows:
Audi
The parts of all Audi-Models that the VW subsidiary offers in the USA almost exclusively do not come from the USA. The US share is still high in a handful of cars of the Q5 series with just 2 percent. Without its own US plant, the manufacturer, who sold 240,771 new cars in North America last year, is practically completely dependent on imports. Most Audis mainly come from German and Hungarian production.
The Q5 has the biggest problem for the time being: it is largely manufactured in Mexico. The Q5 S Line 45, for example, consists of 78 percent of Mexican parts. More than 5000 employees work in the Audi plant in San Jose Chiapa. In 2023, Audi produced 176,000 vehicles there, according to the Mexican Amia, almost 40,000 Audis were exported to the USA in the first half of 2024.
BMW
Also BMW Produces most of its models for the US market outside the United States. However, the Munich people use more components from American production compared to Audi: According to the NHTSA, the X3, the M2 as well as the 2 Series Coupé and the 3 Series Limousine come across 6 to 9 percent. But BMW also threatens a Mexico problem: many models run off the assembly line in San Luis Potosi. From 2027, the work there is also to produce the fully electric model series of the “new class”.
It looks better with the X4, X5, X6, X7 and XM series. They run off the assembly line in Spartanburg in the US state of South Carolina. However, this does not mean that the majority of the parts come from the United States. According to the NHTSA, the US production depth is between 26 and 32 percent. According to the manufacturer, a total of more than 11,000 employees produce 1,500 vehicles every day on a 750,000 square meter area, the work is the world’s largest in the entire BMW group. BMW (together with Mini) sold a total of 397,652 vehicles in the USA last year.
Mercedes Benz
Mercedes Benz Is also heavily dependent on imports, almost two thirds of the models offered in the United States do not contain any US components at all. The remaining vehicles-above all SUVs from the GLE and GLS series and also the GLS Maybach-are manufactured in the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa in the state of Alabama, but only contain 10 percent parts from US production. The fully electric models EQS SUV and EQE SUV as well as the Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV have also been built there since 2023. According to the company, the batteries for these EQ models all come from the nearby Mercedes-owned battery factory.
In 2024, Mercedes-Benz Cars sold a total of 365,400 vehicles in North America (i.e. USA, Mexico and Canada), and 59,900 were added in the Vans division. According to China, the USA is the second largest market for Mercedes-Benz for the two areas. The United States is even the most important market for the subsidiary Mercedes-Benz Mobility specializing in financial and mobility solutions. With 14,500 employees, almost 8 percent of the global Mercedes workforce in North America are employed.
Porsche
Porsche delivered a total of 86,541 cars in North America last year, but was completely dependent on imports. Porsche’s models are primarily in Germany Made-only the Cayenne Coupé and the Cayenne S E Hybrid Coupé are screwed together, especially in Slovakia and Hungary.
Like that “Handelsblatt
“In view of the new tariffs, there should now be concrete considerations in view of the new tariffs in order to build up production in the USA for both Audi and Porsche. As a result, for example, there would be an expansion of the VW plant Chattanooga in the state of Tennessee, but so far there are no official plans.
Enlarge picture
Leaders VW: With the work in Puebla, Volkswagen operates the largest automobile plant in all of Mexico
Photo: Sascha Steinach/ dpa/ picture Alliance
Volkswagen
At Volkswagen the situation is more complex than the other German competitors. The ATLAS series is specially produced for the market in the USA and Canada and runs off the assembly line in chattanooga. Depending on the model, 56 to 60 percent of the parts of the Midsize SUV comes from US production. VW builds almost 150,000 Atlas units every year. However, 31 to 35 percent of the installed parts in each atlas come from Mexico, which should be problematic again with regard to the new customs determination.
With the work in the Mexican Puebla, the German group according to its own information operates the largest automobile plant in all of Mexico, it is also one of the largest VW works in the world. In 2023, 350,000 vehicles were made there and all exported to the USA, especially the Jetta and the Taos come from there. Depending on the model, 33 to 40 percent of the parts come from Mexico and only a maximum of 21 percent from the USA.
In Canada in turn, Volkswagen wants to produce batteries for its electric cars sold in North America from 2027. For this purpose, up to 4.9 billion euros are to be invested in a battery giga factory in St. Thomas, Ontario. That project should also be directly affected by the new tariffs. Volkswagen delivered a total of 1,057,000 new cars in North America last year, and sales increased by 2 percent in the United States.
There are more tariffs
The first official acts of the current Trump Presidency should therefore have far-reaching consequences, both for the USA and its neighbors as well as for the German and worldwide auto industry. But it may only be the beginning. The US President has already threatened to have more punitive tariffs followed against even more countries at the weekend.
Opposite the “Financial Times
“He said:” Will I impose tariffs to the European Union? In any case. They do not take our cars, they do not take our agricultural products, basically they take almost nothing. ”Since the United States had an“ enormous deficit ”towards the EU, Trump will make something very important with the European Union.” he has not yet.
In this country, the bosses of the car manufacturers are watching the events from afar. BMW CEO Oliver Zipse (60) recently even proposed proactively, that the European Union can accommodate the United States when it comes to tariffs. “The EU could take a first big step here: the import duties for vehicles from the United States in Europe are 10 percent, the conversely is only 2.5 percent,” he told the “world” last week. His proposal is therefore uniform tariffs of 2.5 percent in both directions.
More on the subject
In response to the new Trump-Zölle, at least Canada already has Counter tariffs of 25 percent also imposed on all US imports. Mexico and China have also announced countermeasures.
With regard to the new tariffs, a VW spokesman told the German press agency: “We rely on the fact that constructive discussions are held between the trading partners in order to ensure planning security and economic stability and to avoid a trade conflict.” Donald Trump engages in such “constructive conversations”.