Overseas automakers seek access to US manufacturing plants

Daily Mail​

09-05-2025

President Donald Trump's 25 percent automotive tariffs have forced car companies to rejig their manufacturing plans. Some of the biggest car brands in America — including Ford, GM, and Volkswagen — have announced major changes. But for car companies already building in the US, the tariffs might be an unforeseen boon. Lucid, an electric vehicle company with a high-tech factory in Arizona, said it is fielding calls from other automakers.
Manufacturers want a piece of its 3 million square foot production facility in Casa Grande to avoid the import tariff. 'We've seen several inbound inquiries to discuss possible cooperation,' Marc Winterhoff (pictured), the company's recently-appointed CEO, said during a recent earnings call. 'It's still early and talks are preliminary, but the President and the administration want to have a strong manufacturing sector in the US.'
Winterhoff didn't discuss which car companies were making the manufacturing inquiries. For Lucid, the next year of US manufacturing is absolutely critical to the health of its business. The company came to market with the most efficient and fastest-charging EV in the US market, the Air sedan. But it hasn't been a huge sales success: the company sold just over 10,000 units of the $70,000 to $250,000 sedan in 2024, and still incurs a net loss on every sale.
This year, the company launched an $80,000, three-row SUV, the Gravity, which touts a wildly impressive battery range of 450 miles. The new SUV is expected to be a bigger sales success as Americans continue to shift into larger vehicles . But taking on extra manufacturing capacity in its Arizona factory could add more cushion to a startup that has had its fair share of bumps in the road.
Lucid's stock price is trading near all-time lows, hovering just above $2 a share, and the company abruptly shifted CEOs in February. Lucid declined DailyMail.com's request for comment. It comes as the automotive industry is starting to reveal just how much the tariffs will impact their bottom lines.
Ford, which builds more than 80 percent of its cars in the US, said it expects to pay the US government $2.5 billion in tariff costs each year. The company said it will eat the cost of $1.5 billion. It will then pay the remaining $1 billion with a suite of financial maneuvers, including consumer price hikes.
Some Mexican-made Ford models — including the Maverick, Mustang Mach-E, and Bronco Sport — will see price hikes over $2,000. The number is paltry compared to other automakers. GM, America's best-selling car company in 2024, said it expects to pay between $4 billion and $5 billion annually in tariffs.
The company hasn't announced pricing changes, but it's CEO, Mary Barra, has said that the tariffs will likely cut into the company's profit margins. Both companies, easily the two most legendary American car producers in the world, have both removed financial forecasts for the end of the year.
The tariff issues facing both companies likely mean cars will increase in price, potentially by thousands of dollars . This is an outcome both consumer advocates and executives have consistently told DailyMail.com they are concerned about.