CNN
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Ford CEO Jim Farley announced Wednesday on CNN that the automaker is extending its “employee pricing” offer to car buyers for another month, through July 4, to encourage sales to consumers nervous about rising prices because of new tariffs on imported cars and auto parts.
Farley spoke with CNN’s Erin Burnett to talk about auto tariffs, the US economy and the economic impact of automaking at US plants.
But Farley said he can’t say that Ford prices won’t go up up after the end of the employee pricing offer. He said part of it will be determined by what competitors do with their pricing, since Ford makes more of its vehicles in United States than other automakers.
“We want to keep our prices competitive and low,” he said. “We think this is an opportunity for Ford. We have a different footprint, a different exposure for tariffs.”
Auto tariffs, including a 25% tax on all imported cars, have shaken up the global industry. The import taxes will increase the cost for manufacturers, which in turn is expected to raise the price buyers pay for cars later in the year.
About 46% of US car purchases last year were for cars or trucks made in a foreign country, according to S&P Global Mobility. Mexico was the largest source, shipping 2.5 million cars to US dealerships. So far, car buyers have been able to purchase imported vehicles shipped here before the tariffs took effect, but those inventories will soon start to run low.
And soon not even American-built cars will be tariff free. New tariffs will go into effect this Saturday on the parts used to build cars and trucks in the United States, which will raise the cost of production.
“We have to import certain parts,” Farley said. “We can’t even buy those parts here.”
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday some relief from tariffs on the auto parts that are set to take effect this Saturday. But automakers will still have to pay tariffs on cars and trucks they build here if more than 15% of the parts come from foreign suppliers.
“We have worked with his team every day for the last couple of months,” Farley said when asked if he has a direct line to Trump. “We recognize how important this moment is to get this all right and try to figure it out together. I have to say the engagement there has been very high.”
“We’re all trying to figure this out to do the right thing for the country,” he added. “It’s going to take a little time.”
Farley said it’s not clear that American automakers can source all of their parts from US suppliers, and he defended the use of cheaper imported parts.
“The affordability of parts is a really important thing for America because we’ve got to keep the vehicles affordable,” he said. ‘Yes we want to make them like Ford does in the US, but we also want to make the vehicles affordable that are built in the US. The parts are critical for that.”
Anderson Economics Group, a Michigan-based research firm, estimated a month ago that the auto parts tariffs would raise the cost of producing cars at American plants between $3,000 to $12,000. Tuesday’s change would lower the tariff cost by about $900 to $2,500, the company estimated.
“It’s a significant reduction, but it’s still a big tariff impact from point of view of the consumer,” said Patrick Anderson, the founder and president of the research firm.
The employee pricing is part of Ford’s “From America, For America” campaign, as the company seeks to cast itself as a company deeply rooted in, and entwined with, this nation, as Trump pressures companies to come to shift production from foreign plants to US plants. In addition to the new tariffs on auto parts about to go into effect, there has been a 25% tariffs on imported vehicles in effect since earlier this month.
Most major automakers, including Ford, build some of the cars they sell to Americans at foreign plants. Ford builds a greater percentage of its cars at US plants than any other major automaker other than Tesla. Ford built 2 million cars at American plants in 2024, as well as 391,000 in Mexico and 54,000 in Canada, according to S&P Global Mobility.
One example of that: The 2025 Ford Expedition, which is assembled at Ford’s Kentucky Truck plant in Louisville, Kentucky. But according to government estimates, only 42% of its parts come from Canada or the United States, and the rest comes from lower-wage countries like Mexico. Farley conducted interviews with CNN and other media Wednesday from the factory.
At a rally in Michigan Tuesday, President Trump repeated his past claims that automakers are rushing to build new American plants due to his auto tariffs.
“They all want to come back to Michigan and build cars again. You know why? Because of our tax and tariff policy,” he said. “They’re coming up and they’re opening up plants, and they’re talking to us all day and night. They’re coming at levels you’ve never seen before.”
But no automaker has publicly announced plans for a new US plant in response to tariffs. Auto industry experts also say it will take years for any automaker to build a new US plant or reopen a previously closed facility.
Stellantis, which builds North American cars under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands, has announced plans to reopen a closed auto plant in Belvidere, Illinois. But the company agreed to do that as part of a 2023 labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union, more than a year before Trump’s election.
General Motors recently increased production at its Fort Wayne, Indiana, plant by about 1,000 vehicles a week. But that is a fraction of its previous output of more than 1,300 trucks a day and has been incremental, not a shift from Mexican or Canadian plants.
When asked by Burnett if Ford would build new plants or shift production from Mexico to America, Farley mentioned that it is building new factories in Tennessee and Ohio. But those plants were announced during the Biden administration and have nothing to do with tariffs.
They are also being built to produce electric vehicles and EV batteries, partly with the help of federal loans approved as part of the Biden administration’s support for a transition to EVs. Trump has promised to rollback federal support for EVs.
This story has been updated with additional context and developments.
