Automotive News Europe — 2025-01-28
Automotive Industry
BMW will propose that the European Union lower its tariff on US car imports to 2.5% 5from 10%, in line with the current US import tariff, the automaker’s CEO Oliver Zipse said.
President Donald Trump has said he will hit the European Union with high tariffs because the bloc has “troubling trade surpluses” with the US.
Zipse, speaking at a conference in Berlin organized by German publication “Die Welt,” did not expand on whether his proposed lowered tariff should apply to all car imports.
His comments come after Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius, who also is also president of Europe’s auto association ACEA, said this month that the EU should seek a “grand bargain” with Trump to avoid a trade war.
Moody’s and rival rating agency S&P expect cars exported to the US from Europe to attract an additional 10% tariff. A hike in tariffs at the expected levels would “substantially cut European automakers’ profits,” senior Moody’s analyst Ruosha Li wrote in a note.
BMW and Mercedes-Benz would take a smaller hit from a 10% European tariff than rivals such as Volkswagen and Volvo because they have large US factories that mainly build SUVs, Moody’s said.
BMW’s Zipse pointed out during a recent visit to the automaker’s South Carolina plant that the automaker builds more vehicles there than it sold in the US The factory is BMW’s largest plant worldwide.