An Automotive News analysis has found that automakers have spent $35.4 billion on tariffs since 2025.
The analysis includes full-year tariff for 2025 and projections through March of this year and involved a review of automakers financial reports.
“Tariff costs vary wildly by automaker,” the story says. “They are dependent on how much of a company’s U.S. lineup is shipped from overseas and where they source key parts from for U.S. production.”
It found that Toyota is carrying the largest tariff bill with a projected $9.1 billion in costs in its fiscal year, which ends March 31. General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Stellantis have $6.5 billion of tariff costs in 2025, it says.
Other automakers expected to pay more than $1 billion include BMW, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Subaru and Volkswagen.
Automotive News also recently reported that automakers’ cost of restructuring their EV business is about $70 billion. This comes with weaker-than-expected EV sales and the termination of the $7,500 federal tax credit.
Kristin Dziczek, a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago policy advisor, described the 2025 auto industry as a shock absorber during the Automotive Insights Symposium held at the Detroit branch last month.
“Last year, many of us didn’t know what to expect in 2025,” Dziczek said. “We were initially cautiously optimistic, but that quickly faded as the policy environment rapidly changed, and the uncertainty started to rise. Industry leaders put many plans on hold, and they were anticipating some major bumps last year.”
Automotive News says that automakers are still “trying to decipher which tariffs might stick and which might be negotiated down or go away.”
Dan Hearsch, AxilPartners, global co-leader of automotive and industrial practice, told the trade publication that more clarity would allow automakers to make decisions on resourcing parts or changing where and how they build vehicles to avoid tariffs.
Automakers largely absorbed the tariff cost and didn’t pass it on to consumers because they believed many of the tariffs would be temporary, Sam Fiorani, AutoForecast vice president of global vehicle forecasting said in the article.
Dziczek made a similar statement during the symposium, adding that new vehicle price inflation increased significantly in 2021 and 2022 during the chip crises.
“It’s clear that higher prices absolutely crushed car buying sentiment, which has remained depressed since early 2021,” Dziczek said.
Dziczek said a University of Missouri survey found that higher prices were an indicator of consumers saying it was not a good time to buy.
New vehicles dipped below the overall inflation rate in 2023, but consumers may still be reacting to those higher price levels, not just lower rates of price increases, she said.
Used-vehicle prices have remained close to the overall rate of inflation, she said.
Hearsch notes in the article that some automakers are raising prices such as Porsche. He adds that the company is considering producing vehicles in the U.S. despite the large investment commitments.
U.S. production “looks compelling, but it’s a huge investment,” Automotive news reports Porsche CEO Michael Leiters said on the company’s annual results call March 11. “We are looking at it. But right now, [a decision] is not on the table.”
Dziczek said there has been a move back to the U.S. in some cases, including GM’s announcement that they would bring more truck volume to Fort Wayne.
Overall, the share of U.S. sales built in the U.S. increased in 2025 from 51% to 57%, but that isn’t an abnormal peak, she said. Those sales fluctuate from a low of 51% in May 2020 to 58% in November 2021.
There was an increase in the share of overall imports that were compliant for U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) duty-free status, she said.
“Compliance increased sharply, but the auto tariffs compliance increased as well,” she said. “While sales volume rose about 2.5%, the volume of domestic light vehicle exports fell 20%, and light vehicle imports fell 13%.”
She said this has not resulted in an investment boom, adding that manufacturing remained flat through 2025.
There was one plant investment by Rivian in Stanton Springs, Georgia, where ground was broken in September, she said.
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Photo courtesy of Douglas Rissing/iStock
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