Trump’s Tariffs: Assessing the Impact on the Global Automotive Market

In April 2025, the U.S. announced a 25% tariff on all imported automobiles and selected components, targeting OEMs and suppliers across global markets. This is compounded by a hardware-software ban on Chinese and Russian tech in connected vehicles. The policy aims to strengthen domestic manufacturing and safeguard national security, but is already driving up vehicle prices, delaying purchases, and triggering supply chain realignments. OEMs are stockpiling inventory, reassessing sourcing, and shifting toward higher-margin models. Suppliers face cost inflation and compliance challenges, while consumers are shifting to used vehicles. Service providers have an opportunity to guide clients through this disruption with supply chain diagnostics, logo-level exposure analysis, and tech-driven engineering support.

In this Viewpoint, we explore the near- and long-term implications of these policies across the automotive value chain, including their impact on OEMs, suppliers, consumers, and the opportunities they create for service providers.