How Tariffs Threaten America’s Clean Car Future

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This Week’s Big Charge

🛻 Auto Tariffs Don’t Mean Jobs—They Mean Higher Prices And Setbacks On The Road To Zero

As we all power through the dog days of summer, the conversations I have with folks in the auto industry feel grim. President Trump’s tariffs are starting to show their true impact, and the car business is taking some of the hardest hits.

Tariffs have been on everyone’s minds lately. That’s especially true in the electrification space. And during my conversation last week with investor Jiten Behl, he said something that stuck with me: “There have always been reasons to sort of doubt the transition towards electrification, and the latest one is tariffs.”

Not the end of the EV tax credit, or the effective end of fuel economy rules in America, but tariffs.

Why is that the case? Let’s break this down in terms of dollars and cents.

🛠️ How the “traditional” car companies are impacted by tariffs:

• Honda’s quarterly profits took a 50% hit over tariffs. Oof.

• Ford, despite making 77% of its cars domestically, said it expects tariffs to cost the company $2 billion in 2025. (Help me make sense of that one.)

• Toyota, which has a sizable U.S. manufacturing presence, now expects a crushing $9.5 billion tariff hit through March 2026.

• Tariffs will cost General Motors as much as $5 billion for the full year.

• Though South Korea’s Hyundai and Kia have made significant U.S. investments, the 15% tariffs on imports from that country will be painful.