European carmakers, including Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and Volkswagen, said Wednesday that the chaos and upheaval caused by the tariffs introduced by President Trump had left them struggling to assess the impact and unable to plan for the future.
After years of sluggish demand and high inflation, Europe’s carmakers headed into 2025 with a raft of new battery-powered models and high hopes that they would lure back customers.
Instead, they are faced with global uncertainty surrounding supply chains and customer demand, set off by Mr. Trump’s decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on all cars, steel and aluminum coming into the United States.
On Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz suspended its financial forecasts for 2025, as did Stellantis, which includes Fiat, Peugeot and Opel among its brands in Europe, and Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep in the United States.
“The current volatility with regard to tariff policies, mitigation measures and resulting potential direct and indirect effects in particular on customer behavior and demand is too high to reliably assess the business development for the remainder of the year,” Mercedes-Benz said in a statement on Wednesday.
Stellantis cited “the evolution of customs tariffs, as well as the difficulty in predicting their potential impacts on the market and the competitive landscape” for its decision.
Volkswagen Group, the largest automaker in Europe, decided not to scrap its outlook for 2025, but instead scaled back its profit expectations to the lower end of its forecast, to between 5 and 6 percent. The company, which owns Audi, Porsche and the Volkswagen brand, cautioned that the initial calculations had been made before the tariffs were introduced in early April.
All three companies have factories in the United States. Mr. Trump on Tuesday announced changes to the tariffs in what he called “a little flexibility” toward automakers that produce cars in the United States and are concerned about the damage the import taxes will do to their business.
Under the latest version, carmakers that pay a 25 percent tariff on auto imports are not subject to other levies, like, for example, on steel and aluminum, or on certain imports from Canada and Mexico. However, the rules do not appear to protect automakers from tariffs on steel and aluminum that their suppliers pay and may pass on.
The leading group representing German automakers welcomed the move by Mr. Trump, but called it “a small step” that only slightly eases the burden caused by the tariffs.
German carmakers operating in the United States have been caught off guard by the imposition of import taxes on parts and vehicles coming in from Canada and Mexico, where many set up operations after Mr. Trump reworked the free-trade agreement with those countries during his first term in office.
“Companies urgently need more clarity in order to be able to assess the exact impact and implement the measures with legal certainty,” said Hildegard Müller, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry.
Porsche has been among the German brands hardest hit by the tariffs. It relies on the U.S. market for 40 percent of its sales, but manufactures its sports cars exclusively in Germany, leaving it heavily exposed to the duties.
The sports car maker’s dismal performance in the first three months of the year dragged down its parent company, Volkswagen Group, which said Wednesday that its earnings dropped more than 40 percent in the first quarter.
Even before Mr. Trump introduced tariffs, Volkswagen’s key brands were struggling against high costs and overcapacity at its plants in Germany, as well as increased pressure from Chinese competitors that are flooding the European market despite an increase in import taxes passed by the European Union last year.
Volkswagen makes cars including the electric ID.4, at a factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., and is building a factory in South Carolina to produce off-road vehicles under the Scout brand. Audi produces cars in Europe and Mexico, as well as Europe, but not in the United States. Oliver Blume, Volkswagen’s chief executive, has said that the company is considering shifting manufacturing of another one of its models to Chattanooga to avoid tariffs.
German media has reported that Mr. Blume and his counterparts at Mercedes-Benz and BMW met with Mr. Trump in an effort to work out a deal. German automakers and their suppliers employ some 138,000 people in the United States, according to the German industry trade group.
The tariffs are causing other European carmakers to rethink their strategy in the United States. The British automaker Aston Martin said Wednesday that it was holding back on imports to the United States because of the tariffs. Instead, the company plans to use up existing inventory that has already been shipped, the company’s chief executive said in a statement. Jaguar Land Rover has also said that it is pausing shipments to the United States.
