Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla (TSLA) is not coming out unscathed from the newly announced automotive tariffs. He admits that the impact is “significant.”
Yesterday, the Trump administration released an update on its plans for tariffs in the auto industry.
Starting April 3rd, the US will impose 25% tariffs on all cars and light trucks assembled outside the US. The tariffs will also apply to all foreign auto parts, but the US government is extending the exemption to parts coming from Canada and Mexico under the USMCA free trade agreement until May 3rd.
Tesla shareholders believe this was great for Tesla since all vehicles it sells in the US are assembled in the US.
However, CEO Elon Musk had to throw some cold water on this idea and confirmed on X last night that the impact on Tesla will still be “significant”. He said:
Important to note that Tesla is NOT unscathed here. The tariff impact on Tesla is still significant.
The automaker often claims to make “the most American-made vehicles,” but it still gets a significant percentage of its parts from other countries.
Tesla gets some of its parts from China, which will now be more expensive, and steel and aluminum from Mexico and Canada were also subject to tariffs.
We also previously reported that Tesla gets more than 20% of its parts from Mexico for all vehicles produced in the US. An undisclosed percentage of parts also come from Canada.
Tesla also produces a lot of its manufacturing machinery in Canada.
Electrek’s Take
No matter how Tesla fans, or more accurately, Tesla shareholders, are trying to frame this, it isn’t good for anyone, including Tesla.
It will increase the price of all vehicles in the US, making it harder for everyone to buy cars, including Teslas.
While the automaker assembles all its vehicles in the US, it is still buying foreign parts, including from China and Europe, which are subject to tariffs. The same goes for steel and aluminum.
Furthermore, Tesla gets about 25% of its parts from Mexico on most of its US-made vehicles and an undisclosed amount from Canada. These will be more expensive starting in May unless the Trump administration changes course again, which wouldn’t be surprising at this point.
The auto supply chain in North America is quite complicated, but the free trade agreement simplified it. Subsystem parts can travel between Mexico, the US, and Canada several times before being installed in an assembled vehicle in any of those countries.
Now, the US government believes that within a month, it will find a way to break all that down to know exactly what percentage of not only the vehicles, but also those subsystems travelling North America are made in the US and that part will be exempt while the rest will be slapped with a 25% tariff.
There’s very little chance that this will be figured out, effectively, by May 3rd.
On top of all that, you will now also see reciprocal tariffs from virtually the entire world and as we have seen happen in Canada, it’s possible that Tesla gets singled out specifically due to Musk’s proximity with Trump.
This is bad all around. There’s no way to frame any of this in a good light.
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