Trump's Auto Tariffs Rile Hyundai, Nissan, Honda Stocks; Tata Motors To Face Brunt?
United States President Donald Trump's announcement of 25% tariffs on imports of all cars, trucks and automobile components has riled the stocks of some of the top Asian sectoral players.
The tariffs, which will be imposed in a blanket manner from April 3, were announced by Trump on March 26. Since then, shares of Toyota Motor Corp. have slipped by 9.25%, Honda Motor Co. by 10.2%, Nissan Motor Co. by 10.8%, and Hyundai Motor Co. is down by 11.1%.
While Toyota, Honda and Nissan are listed in Japan, Hyundai's scrip is traded at the Korean Exchange in South Korea. These companies account for four of the top six car-sellers in the US, per the data available on US automobile marketplace platform CarPro.
The tariffs could have the maximum impact on Toyota, which was the top seller in the US car market in calendar year 2024, accounting for almost 2 million of overall sales.
Honda held the fourth spot with 1.3 million units sold in the American market in 2024, Nissan was fifth with sales of 865,938 units, closely followed by Hyundai which sold 836,802 units, according to CarPro data.
The sharp slide in the stocks of Asian automakers, even before the tariff coming into effect, has raised fears of more downside. "There will be an impact in the short-term, but over the medium term, it remains to be seen how the tariffs will affect their sales. One cannot change the supply chain overnight," Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at WealthMills Securities Pvt., told NDTV Profit.
What About Indian Automakers?
Indian automobile manufacturers are likely to face a miniscule impact of the tariffs, as the US is not a key export market. In terms of value, India's annual car exports to the US stood at $8.9 million in 2024, just 0.13% of the country's overall car exports, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative, an Indian economic think tank.
The only exception among the Indian carmakers is Tata Motors Ltd., whose UK-based arm Jaguar Land Rover finds the US as one of the key markets.
In the financial year 2024, Jaguar Land Rover's sales in the North American market climbed by a sharp 21%. The momentum has continued in fiscal 2025, with wholesale rising by 44% in North America in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, per the quarter results issued by the company.
According to CarPro, Land Rover stood at the 25th rank among the most sold car brands in the US in 2024, with 106,650 units.
Trump's tariff announcement had an impact on the company's stock, with the India-listed Tata Motors declining by 6.5% over the past five days. At 2:30 pm on Tuesday, it was trading 0.9% lower at Rs 668.45 apiece on the NSE, compared to 1.53% decline in the benchmark Nifty 50.
Will Tata Motors continue to see downside ahead? Bathini believes that there will be a "nominal" impact in the short-term period. "JLR has a strong diversified portfolio, which should be able to absorb the volatility in the US market. But in the short-term, yes, there will be some nominal impact on the stock."
"The overall impact of the tariffs will also depend on the pain to be felt by the US consumers. The prices will rise in the American automobile market. We need to wait and watch how tariff will be impacting the US auto sales," the analyst added.
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