Imho, automakers are the first to get hit with any sort of tariff war.
Also, specifically with Ford, it’s gambling by shifting all small car production out of the U.S. and into china/mexico, and leaving almost all of domestic US car production for trucks and suv’s (except the Mustang). It’s the same short sighted decisions that US automakers have made in the past, that Mulally tried to put an end to when he was CEO, only for his successor to reverse.
If oil/gas prices start going up significantly, American consumers are going to be ditching their gas guzzling SUV/Trucks again, and want to switch back to things more economical. However, at that point Ford won’t have a decent sedan/small car portfolio in the US to meet demand. They’ll have to bring their cars from abroad, subject to tariffs. Other players like Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, will probably be increasing sedan production in the US to reduce the impact of tariffs. I don’t know, it just seems like Ford’s recent strategy is walking into tariff’s harms way, while everyone else is trying to increase passenger car production in the U.S.
