Toyota latest to announce tariff price hikes

Daily Mail​

5 hours ago

Published: | Updated:
Toyota has confirmed it will raise prices on new vehicles starting in July. The average sticker price will climb by $270, while its luxury brand Lexus will tack on an average of $208 per car. The Japanese automaker, which consistently ranks highest in US consumer confidence, has been warning of looming price increases since late May.
Facing an expected $1.3 billion tariff bill from the US government, Toyota says it has little choice but to pass some of that cost onto buyers. '[Business is] not sustainable longer term without significant price increases,' Mark Templin, Toyota's chief operating officer for North America, said in a recent event with Ward's Auto.
'And the industry already has an affordability problem.' A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's questions about pricing and tariffs. Toyota is just the latest in a growing list of automakers hiking prices in response to the Trump administration's tariff policy.
In March, President Donald Trump slapped a 25 percent tariff on all vehicles and car parts entering the US market. The policy was slightly eased a month later to give companies time to shift production to US soil — but the regulatory back-and-forth has created whiplash in the industry.
'The problem is, no one knows what will happen to tariffs,' Neil Saunders, a retail expert at GlobalData, said. 'The policy has been erratic and remains uncertain.' Carmakers now say the instability is making it nearly impossible to set pricing with confidence.
'It's too early to talk about pricing,' an American CEO, granted anonymity to speak freely, told DailyMail.com during this year's New York International Auto Show . 'There isn't enough clarity [about tariffs] to know what we can ask our customers to pay.'
So far, manufacturers have responded with modest — but stacking — price bumps. Ford was first to move , raising prices by $2,000 on the Mustang Mach-E, Maverick, and Bronco Sport. All three models all made in Mexico. The company blamed the hikes on mid-cycle design refreshes, not tariffs, though analysts remain skeptical.
'[The increase] is based on our most recent evaluation across the industry,' Jeremy Barnes, a spokesperson for the company, told DailyMail.com. 'There will be no adjustments to vehicles already in dealer inventory.' Previously, Mitsubishi had held back vehicles at US ports while weighing whether to release them to dealers.
The flurry of price hikes arrives as Americans are already facing a one-two punch on vehicle affordability. First, the average price of a new car in the US topped $49,000 last month — hovering near record highs. Second, insurance premiums are skyrocketing to match those ballooning sticker prices.