Louisville, Kentucky - A white 2025 Ford Expedition SUV with bronze exterior trim rolls down the assembly line of Ford's Kentucky Truck Factory. It is assembled by American workers in the factory. But this is far from being completely "made in the United States".
Most of its main parts (at least 58% as stated on window stickers) are made outside the country, including 22% in Mexico. This includes its Ford-designed 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 Ecoboost engine, the heart of the vehicle.
Popular large SUVs are a classic example of how complex the global automotive supply chain is, and emphasizes the reality that even vehicles that roll off the U.S. assembly line from a typical American company (such as Ford) can rely heavily on inheritance content.
The Kentucky large parliamentary plant has more than 9,000 people building expeditions, F-Series pickup trucks and Lincoln Navigator SUVs, and it is the facilities that Donald Trump urged automakers to build in the U.S. by using aggressive tariffs.
After Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imported vehicles and many auto parts, automakers began to scramble tout U.S. investment and localize supply chains as much as possible. But if all of the U.S. auto parts are purchased and manufactured in the U.S., the country will benefit from employment and economic output, but experts say this is not feasible.
“Some parts that deviate from the currency can still be in these locations instead of parts manufactured at large scale, even with some tariffs,” said Martin French, a long-term supplier and partner at Berylls Strategy Advisors USA.
Processing and production of steel, aluminum and semiconductor chips (especially older chips used in automobiles) and items such as raw materials such as platinum and palladium are not common enough in the United States. These process experts say that mass creation will take ten years or more.
Most importantly, the increase in cost of 100% used vehicles can position many consumers from the new vehicle market. This in turn may result in smaller demand and may reduce production.
"We can move everything to the U.S., but if each Ford is $50,000, we wouldn't win with a company," Ford CEO Jim Farley said last week on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "It's a balanced act that every (auto manufacturer) has to do, even the most American company in the U.S.."
Farley said it is difficult (if not impossible) to source 15% to 20% of commercial vehicle parts in the U.S., most of the most are from Asia, including small fasteners, labor-intensive wiring and nearly $5,000 per vehicle.
S&P Global Mobility Report says that when the vehicle is torn into nuts and bolts, the vehicle has an average of 20,000 parts. Parts may originate from 50 to 120 countries.
For example, according to engineering benchmarks and consulting firm Caresoft, the Ford F-150 shares a platform with the expedition and specializes in assembling with certain parts of the expedition, but has about 2,700 major billable parts, not including many small pieces.
The Trump administration could ease the price of U.S.-made vehicles by offering tax breaks or consumer incentives, just as Trump had previously promised to eliminate EV credit up to $7,500.
However, 100% American-made vehicles cost more and more complex than blushing at first. It's even hard to track content from the U.S. because automakers have to report a combined percentage of Canadian and U.S. content in cars, not just U.S. content.
Several auto analysts and executives told CNBC that the material cost of not including manufacturing investments (excluding manufacturing investments) will increase the price by thousands of dollars, which will eliminate profits for automakers and increase sales for consumers, several auto analysts and executives told CNBC.
People who are given anonymity can speak freely, which is estimated to add thousands of dollars, and you can get close to 100% of the U.S. and Canadian parts every step.
Mark Wakefield, a partner and head of global automotive markets at consulting firm Alixpartners, said that nothing is impossible over time, but the investment and added costs required for procurement in Canada will increase exponentially, and the closer the company is to a company’s “made in the United States” vehicle.
"The fees get more quantitative... the closer you get to 100%," Wakefield said. "More than 90% of people get expensive, and getting about 95% gets very expensive, and you're just starting to get involved in things that take a long time (to do).
Wakefield said it could take a decade or more to build up raw materials sourcing and re-produce certain parts if or when or when it starts to "get very expensive" and that it could take a decade or more to build up raw materials procurement and re-produce certain parts.
"I don't think you can do about 95% of the thing at the average cost, just because you need to build a lot of things that take a long time," he said. "It takes a long time to deal with things that are raw and raw, because these facilities can handle it billions of dollars."
Two executives of the auto supplier told CNBC that the company can now make 100% of U.S.-made vehicles profitably, which is "unrealistic." Another executive at a carmaker estimates that the average cost of assembled U.S. full-size pickup trucks will increase by at least $7,000 to get as many components as the U.S. and Canada currently have.
An expert who summarizes costs said that buying 70% to 75% or 80% of vehicle purchases in the U.S./Canada currently could add $5,000; another $5,000 to $10,000 to 90%; and, thousands to higher percentages.
According to Cox Automobile, the average transaction price of new cars in the United States is currently about $48,000. Suppose the vehicle is made of $30,000 in materials and parts. With the above expenses added, the company will increase by about $10,000 to $20,000.
Cars.com reports that the United States is by far the most expensive country. According to its data, the average new car price for assembled cars in the United States is over $53,200. By comparison, Mexico has about $40,700, Canada has $46,148, and China has about $51,000.
Aside from raw materials, it is theoretically possible to start a new car company from scratch (let's call it American cars). Experts say U.S. cars could spend billions of dollars on building new factories and building a used U.S. supply chain, but the vehicles it will produce could be small-sized and overly expensive vehicles.
Think of Ferrari: Every car from the iconic automaker comes from Italy, with as many components as possible coming from the company’s homeland.
But even Ferrari's multi-million dollar sports cars have parts or raw materials from non-Italian suppliers and facilities, such as airbags, brakes, tires, batteries, etc.
"If you do it at very low volumes and your vehicle is very innovative and different, you can produce $300,000-400,000 across the U.S. vehicles," Wakefield said. "To do this on a large scale, it would be $10-15 (years) and $100 billion."
Wakefield said putting vehicles into the U.S. and Canada 75% of Canadian parts and the last gathering in the U.S. is an easier goal to achieve, "does not force you to do something uneconomical", noting that several vehicles meet that standard today.
But even reaching this threshold on a larger scale could require billions of dollars in new investments, localizing from automakers and suppliers. Some automakers can make this move easier, while others require large-scale procurement and production shifts.
Vehicles that meet the 2025 model annual U.S./Canadian parts standards include the Kia EV6, two versions of the Tesla Model 3 and the Honda Ridgeline AWD Trail Sport, according to the latest vehicle content data required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nearly 20 others are 70% or higher, while some vehicles still need to be added to the data.
By comparison, the first 16 cars in the 2007 model NHTSA data (from General Motors and Ford) have 90% or more of U.S. and Canadian content. Ford's expedition was 95% at the time, but it was before the ever-expanding globalization of the automotive industry's supply chains after the Great Depression, before several major technological advancements in the automobile make new parts and materials more important.
For decades, the trend for U.S./Canada content has been less frequent due to globalization of supply chains and the increased use of Mexico as a source of parts and components.
According to Cars.com, the top 10 cars with the largest portions in the U.S. and Canada had 63.6% to 69.2% of the part content in the model year from 2019 to 2024.
Imported vehicles from many luxury brands, especially German manufacturers, and Toyota's Lexus, have very little content. According to federal data, many people don’t have or 1%.
Under the United States Car Label Act of 1992, the U.S./Canada percentage is calculated on a “Carline” basis rather than a “CARLINE” per car and can be rounded to the nearest 5%. They are calculated by automakers and reported to the government.
However, the high threshold for North American parts does not mean that vehicles produced in the United States are 2024 Toyota RAV4, for example, U.S./Canadian parts are reported to have 70% of U.S. parts and are built in Canada.
"In theory, you could own a car, but only 1% of the parts, content," said Patrick Masterson, principal investigator of Cars.com's Manufacturing Index.
Cars.com's annual U.S. Highest Vehicle Index takes vehicle assembly, parts and other factors into account. No Ford or GM vehicles went into the top ten, while two Teslas, two Hondas and a Volkswagen team went into the top five.
The study judged the 100-vehicle rankings of the same five criteria used since the 2020 edition: assembly location, part content, engine origin, transmission origin and U.S. manufacturing labor. More than 400 vehicles of 2024 models were analyzed to include 100 vehicles on the list.
The White 2025 Ford Expedition, which recently stood out in Kentucky, expects Kentucky’s assembly line to score higher than the previous year, ranking 78th in the year due to the increase in domestic content.
Masterson said interest and popularity of the "Made in the United States" this year due to Trump's tariff policies and nationalism.
"Travel in the 'Made in the United States' index' is rising this year," Masterson said.