So VW wants to make it clear to customers why some of its products are about to get more expensive, which it estimates will begin around April 22 or 23. It will do that by adding a new line to the Monroney sticker, with a line for the import fee added alongside the destination charge, according to a VW memo seen by Automotive News.

Send employees home

Around three million people work in the automotive industry in the US, and it’s hard to see how the sector will avoid job losses as it contracts, particularly once the parts tariff goes into effect. (Some parts can cross the US border more than once on their journey from raw material to finished component and will get much more expensive, especially as Canada and Mexico levy retaliatory tariffs of their own.)

Stellantis is having a rough time of late in North America, where its sales have fallen for the past seven consecutive quarters. Now, some of its workers in Michigan and Indiana are among the first to be idled as a result of the tariffs.

The company is laying off 900 workers temporarily at stamping, casting, and transmission plants as a result of idling production at factories in Windsor, Canada (where 4,500 employees are being sent home for two weeks), and Toluca, Mexico (where workers will still get paid but won’t assemble cars this month), according to a letter sent by Stellantis to employees, seen by Reuters.

We can expect more automakers to react in the coming days, but the full effects will be delayed as automakers and their dealerships run down existing inventory, which may take a couple of months. One thing is clear: It will be an even lousier time to buy a new vehicle, the prices of which have already been elevated by 25 percent since the pandemic of 2020.