It takes a lot to make a car, often including parts that come form outside the U.S. Tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump are expected to impact the car industry, and at least one expert said they already have.
“It’s going to a challenging time for everyone,” auto analyst Sam Abuelsamid, vice president for market research at Telemetry. “We’re already seeing prices start to increase. Ford yesterday indicating they’re raising prices on some Mexican-built products. We’re going to see that from everybody over the next several months.”
Abuelsamid was part of a panel of experts who discussed the state of the auto industry under the economic conditions ushered in during the second Trump administration with WWJ Newsradio’s Jeff Gilbert. That panel also included Glenn Stevens of MichAuto; Steve Horaney, senior vice president for MEMA OE Suppliers and Todd Szott from Szott Automotive group.
“In an industry that works on five, 10-year timelines in terms of planning of what they’re going to build, where they’re going to build it, who they’re going to work with… it’s extremely difficult to make any kinds of decisions when you’ve got policies that are changing on a daily or sometimes hourly basis.”
Stevens said that his advocacy-focused organization has been studying the America First economic policy from the Trump administration and its tariff policies closely since the start of the year. He said they have been surprised by the “velocity and magnitude” of what’s come out of the administration so far, particular in regards to tariffs.
“Probably not a more intense couple of months in my entire time in the industry,” said Stevens, who explained that his group has been in discussions with stakeholders that include people in the industry and even the White House. “And I’ve been in it a few years now.”
Horaney agreed, but said that “intense” might even be an understatement.
He also noted that the “automotive supplier sector is one of the largest manufacturing groups, sectors in North America.”
Szott offered a more optimistic take from the car dealer perspective. He said that things have been a “little less chaotic,” for them than for suppliers and that March was actually a great month for sales, potentially due to concerns about prices increasing in the future as a result of the tariffs.
“We’re a resilient bunch. We know we can figure it out, whatever is thrown at us. We’ve made it through the financial crisis, we've made it to COVID, through the chip shortage.”
Listen to the full panel discussion here.