Several global automakers, including Mercedes-Benz and Stelantis, have joined Michigan's General Motors and Volvo, suspending their respective annual financial guidance reports for investors, amid rising tax uncertainty.
Wednesday's announcement even came when U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to mitigate the blow to the automatic tariffs he imposed earlier this month.
"While we further evaluate the impact of tariff policies on North American operations, we look forward to continuing cooperation with the U.S. government to strengthen the U.S. auto industry and stimulate exports," John Elkann, chairman of the Stelantis Board of Directors, said in a statement.
"It is suspending its financial guidance for 2025 due to evolving tariff policies and the difficulty of predicting the possible impact on market volume and competitive landscape," Stelantis said.
This is among the layoffs of Stellantis, a carmaker with 14 brands including Jeep, Ram Trucks, Dodge, Fiat and Maserati. In April, it temporarily abandoned 900 workers for two weeks and said it was due to uncertainty about how the tariffs imposed on Trump would affect its business.
Stellantis' Americas chief operating officer Antonio Filosa said in a company-wide email that it will assess the medium-term and long-term impact of these tariffs on its operations, but also "decided to take some immediate action."
The company reported a 14% drop in first-quarter sales to a $40.7 billion (€35.8 billion) first-quarter earnings report.
Europe's largest automakers, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, saw their net profits plummet during the same January-March period before the launch of U.S. tariffs.
Mercedes cites “volatility in tariff policies”, which means that business development cannot be predicted reliably. Mercedes' net profit fell nearly 43% to $190 million (€1.73 billion) in the first three months of the year
Finance chief Harald Wilhelm said Mercedes is still in a strong position because he is talking about profitable, high-end vehicles.
“This combined with a healthy balance sheet provides a solid foundation for our company to survive periods of geopolitical uncertainty,” he said.
A Reuters analysis shows that about 40 industries around the world canceled or lowered their forward-looking guidance in the first two weeks of the first-quarter revenue season. On Tuesday, social media giant SNAP declined to provide future guidance, saying advertising spending slowed due to tariffs and raised doubts about the advertising budget, with its stock falling 15% on Wednesday.
Before the tariffs, European automakers were already facing slowing sales of electric vehicles, fierce competition from local competitors and electric vehicles from China, a key market. Volkswagen, 10 brands including Audi, Skoda and Porsche, said its net profit fell 40.6% to $2.49 billion (€219 million).
For the rest of the year, the automaker said its guidance expects “toward the lower end” in the guidance, which includes increased competition, stricter emission regulations and trade tensions.
Arno Antlitz, head of finance at Volkswagen, said in a call for analysts and investors that it would be too early to circumvent any tariffs if Volkswagen stepped up manufacturing in the U.S. to circumvent any tariffs.
Volkswagen expects profit margins to be 5.5 to 6.5% in the coming year, but its guidance does not take into account variable U.S. tariffs.
"It's very difficult to project the whole year," Anlez said.
UBS analyst Patrick Hummel wrote in a client noted that the German group's prospects "have "not included any impact of U.S. tariffs" and called it "basically a withdrawal guidance."
In the UK, luxury car maker Aston Martin Lagonda announced that it restricted shipments to the U.S., but it maintained its annual guidance as reported first-quarter revenue fell 13%.
In addition to the 25% tariff on imported cars, the industry is also affected by Trump's 25% tariff on steel and aluminum.
Automakers will also face new tariffs on foreign auto parts expected to come into effect on May 3.
Trump's new policy means a company won't face a 25% tax on imported vehicles and a 25% steel or aluminum. U.S. Department of Commerce officials said importers would pay higher taxes in the two taxes, but not both.
Another change is that companies that assemble vehicles import parts in the United States will be able to offset 3.75% of vehicle listing prices in the first year and 2.5% in the second year.
But analysts believe that such probation is not necessarily effective in practice, as automakers face the impact of tariffs on their business.
“While this sounds good on paper (not worse than the original automatic tariff board), a car made in the US across the United States is a fictional story, and it’s impossible to do a fictional story today, and it may take 4-5 years for many factories/production centers to be established in the US… This shows a huge frustration in the industry because we illustrate the rules of uspariff Game in our perspective,” she explained that on Wednesday. ”