Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced it will pause shipments of its UK-made cars to the United States this month, while it figures out how to respond to President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on imported cars.
As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions, including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans,” JLR said in a statement sent to various media.
The British company, famous for its sports-luxury vehicles, said the U.S. market was an important market for its brands, noting that it accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
Trump’s 25% tariff on cars and light trucks imported into the United States took effect on April 3, sending shockwaves throughout the global auto industry.
Analysts expect other car makers will also scale back or halt their exports to the U.S.
On April 3, Nissan, which is the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.
Meanwhile, fellow Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda, along with South Korea’s Hyundai, all announced on April 4 that they would not be raising prices, at least over the next couple of months, following the imposition of the U.S. tariffs. However, other Asian automakers, such as Kia and Mazda did not make similar pledges.
In surprise moves, European conglomerate Stellantis and Ford, the second largest U.S. automaker, said they would extend their employee-discounted pricing to everyone on select models. Ford’s discounts will be applicable to Mexican-made models such as the Mustang Mach-E and Maverick
U.S. PresidentDonald Trump’s 25% tariffs on automotive imports, and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, have sent car companies scrambling.
Some automakers have responded to hefty levies on Mexican and Canadian imports by pausing operations there, leading to layoffs in the U.S. plants that supply them through an interconnected web of North American production. Others have added jobs to the U.S. to increase output domestically.
A temporary bright spot for dealers and automakers is a surge of vehicle purchases by tariff-wary shoppers. March sales increased on this uncertainty, and automakers are now looking to grab market share with a variety of incentives over the coming months.
If you can actually get some consumers to defect, especially from brands that have extremely high levels of loyalty … then you know you’re not just buying this customer once. This incentive pays off potentially for a lifetime,” said Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds.
Matick Automotive Group dealer Paul Zimmermann saw sales at his General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab and Toyota (7203.T)
, opens new tab dealerships pick up at the end of March, with the overall group logging a year-over-year increase of about 15% in the first quarter.
“There for sure was just an uptick in leads, in foot traffic and in sales the last two weeks. We got a lot of anecdotal input feedback from folks that was a driver,” he said of the tariffs.
Japan’s Nissan (7201.T), opens new tab said this week it would reduce prices on its 2025 Rogue and 2025 Pathfinder to “boost affordability for customers facing a challenging car-buying landscape.” Hyundai Motor (005380.KS)
, opens new tab committed to maintaining sticker prices on its current models through June 2.
General Motors as of Friday had not changed its April incentive offers, the company said.
While the short-term effects of tariffs have driven up sales, U.S. automakers have privately warned lawmakers that they will be forced to drastically raise prices if the tariffs remain in place.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz said in his “Verdict with Ted Cruz” podcast on Friday that he spoke to one of the Detroit Three automakers, who warned of large price hikes for U.S. vehicles starting around June as existing inventories are depleted.
The impact of these tariffs will be the prices, the average prices of all their cars will go up $4,500,” Cruz said he was told by the major U.S. automaker. “It’s not just foreign cars that will go up.
