After the United States applied a 25% tariff to vehicle imports last April, more than half of the shipping firms established in Mexico lowered their shipments to that country.
Although the rate only partially affects cars assembled in Mexico, since a discount was awarded in the tax depending on the US components they contain, Mazda, Kia, Audi, Ford, Honda-Acura, Toyota, Toyota and General Motors components reduced their fee of shipments to the United States.
These are seven of the 12 automotive groups that have assembly and export activities in Mexico.
According to data from the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (INEGI), from April to June, Mazda, Kia and Audi were the brands whose Mexican plants further lowered the weight of the US market in its portfolio of external markets.
In the case of Mazda, its exports to the neighboring country were reduced 53.4% to 16,136 units, with which the United States absorbed 54.9% of its total shipments, compared to 72.2% of the same period of 2024.
Similarly, Kia lowered his shipments to the United States 12.6% to 46,829 vehicles, so that the quota of that country in its Mexican exports was reduced from 80.7% to 66.4 percent.
While Audi dropped its sales to the neighboring nation by 37.4% to 16,054 cars, which represented only 29.1% of the total exported, when the US fee was 41.1% in 2024.
Since last April 3, US customs charged a 25% tariff to vehicle imports, measured by President Donald Trump’s government, under the argument that the automaker is a national security sector that requires tariff protection to promote greater local manufacturing.
But on May 20, Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary of Economy reported that the average tariff applied to cars assembled in Mexico would be 15% if they complied with the rules of origin of the United Mexico-Canada-Canadian Treaty (T-MEC), in recognition of the degree of US components that these units have.
This Tuesday the economist reported that a set of brands such as Audi, Mazda, BMW, Honda-Acura and Mercedes Benz, which have plants established in Mexico recently installed (no more than 11 years) has dropped their exports after the application of tariffs.
This coincides with the greatest difficulties they face to comply with the rules of origin of the T-MEC, which established an increase in the value of regional content (VCR) to 75% from 62.5% in force with the former Free Trade Agreement of North America (NAFTA).
Importance of Mexico
Of the 16 million cars that were sold in the United States last year, 16.5% were made in Mexico, which was the main supplier of that country, where around the half of the local market is supplied with imports.
During the revised period (April-July), the other brands with assembly and export from Mexico that also reduced their exposure to the US market are Ford, from 93% to 84.9%; Honda-Accura, from 89.3% to 86.9%; Toyota, from 93% to 91%; and General Motors, whether marginally, from 85% to 85.4 percent.
From April to date, the participation of the US market in Mexican car exports of all brands had a slight reduction of 77.7% to 76.8%, after sales to that country grew just 0.8% to 905,798 units.
Other important markets for Mexico, on the other hand, had a better performance, such as Canada, with an increase of 34.2% to 146,262 vehicles; Argentina (+159% to 7,227); Saudi Arabia (+55.5% to 5.775); Japan (+38.9% to 5.412) or Australia (+45.9% to 4,574 units).
