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I'm not sure even Tesla unambiguously qualifies here. Looking at the NHTSA part 583 list for 2025 [0], none of the Tesla vehicles have a "US" content higher tha
by AlotOfReading 1y ago
I'm not sure even Tesla unambiguously qualifies here. Looking at the NHTSA part 583 list for 2025 [0], none of the Tesla vehicles have a "US" content higher than 75% (which I think includes Canada?). The highest is the base Kia EV6 at 80%. This seems to be coming from the Kogod manufacturing index. That's a more qualitative ranking that attempts to deal with things like corporate structures rather than just origin like the NHTSA numbers.
As someone who works in the industry, "where" something comes from is an inherently fuzzy concept. Different parts of the government use radically different definitions. For example, under NAFTA "domestic" parts are usually things manufactured anywhere in North America. This was done to onshore automotive manufacturing that wasn't realistically going to come back to the US, but political leaders didn't want to stay in Asia. One result of these tariffs may actually be that more auto manufacturing moves to Asia as the advantage of North American manufacturing is lost.
[0] https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2025-04/MY2025-AALA-Alphabetical%204_7_2025.pdf https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2025-04/MY2025-A...
- Suppafly 1y agoMy immediate assumption was that Tesla lies and probably has more offshore content than most of their competitors.
- kurthr 1y agoExactly, corruption is legal. Only your competitors will be fined.
- decremental 1y ago[dead]
- matttproud 1y agoGive the U.S. ten years and "clientelism" will have become a household word.
- parthdesai 1y agoI thought "lobbying" is already a household word :)
- varjag 1y agoI don't think lobbying implies your rep having a bedroom in White House.
- DrillShopper 1y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Bedroom_for_contributors_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Bedroom_for_contributo...
- duggan 1y agoAnd perhaps "state capture", which is a term I first heard from South Africans. Edit: incidentally, only mentioning SA as academics there developed the theory around it, to the best of my knowledge.
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y agoYep. 3 Months ago: > The implicit justification for valuing Tesla now is not "we sell good cars", it is state capture. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43023325 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43023325 Indeed I also heard it in context of South Africa. But Wikipedia also has other, earlier examples too.
- matt-attack 1y agoHow is it corruption? Any automaker could have chosen to build their factories here. Tesla did. Others chose not to. Shouldn’t they be lauded for that? Apple builds phones in China, but Teslas are built in Oakland. I just find it pretty cool.
- wisty 1y agoI'd just assume they picked whatever definitions they needed to make Tesla exempt.
- ozozozd 1y agoThis is the way.
- thefounder 1y agoMaybe it is just a coincidence
- mlindner 1y agoThat's a strange assumption to make. Most other auto OEMs are basically just final assembly plants with parts shipped in from everywhere. Tesla makes way more parts farther down their supply chain directly in their own factories. Ford, GM and the rest for example aren't designing and populating their own circuit boards.
- Suppafly 1y ago>Tesla makes way more parts farther down their supply chain directly in their own factories. Sure but all of the inputs and components to those parts come from other countries. I suppose it depends on how you define terms.
- porphyra 1y agoInteresting assumption, but unfortunately it is a wrong assumption.
- vorpalhex 1y agoSounds like a poor assumption on an audited fact.
- sinuhe69 1y agoIf the origins are so fuzzy, I guess other manufacturers would very soon adjust their part lists/part origins to avoid the tariff?
- alephnerd 1y agoEven in normal times regulators don't take kindly to origination fraud even, so it's highly unlikely anyone will risk it with an admin like the current one. Look at what happened to Amazon earlier today and SentinelOne last week. Most manufacturers will eat the cost and raise prices to a certain extent. Base models of any product tend to be manufactured in such as way that they have much looser margins.
- endianswap 1y agoWhat regulators lol
- alephnerd 1y agoMost recently, Ford for violating the "Chicken Tax" - https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-pay-365-million-us-import-tariff-evasion-case-2024-03-11/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-p... And that was under the Biden admin, which was much less pushy. The Trump admin is much more vindictive, especially with a policy that appears to be backed personally by DJT. Here are some interesting legal articles discussing this very thing in the Trump admin https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2025/02/us-administration-tariff-expansion-potential-false-claims-act-actions-and-other-enforcement-implications https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2025/02/us-administration-t... https://natlawreview.com/article/what-every-multinational-company-needs-know-about-criminal-enforcement-trade-import https://natlawreview.com/article/what-every-multinational-co...
- mindslight 1y ago[flagged]
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- throwaway5752 1y ago[flagged]
- brandensilva 1y ago[flagged]
- khazhoux 1y agoThe corruption issue is the point of the article. It’s the obvious thing here. Person above is pointing out that even Tesla isn’t 85% USA
- leereeves 1y agoThat's pure speculation, but quite possible. Corruption is nothing new in Washington. The real question is whether people support bringing auto manufacturing back to America. As always, people who like the policy/candidate/official will overlook the corruption, while people who dislike the policy/candidate/official complain about it. The people who demanded evidence about Biden will accept speculation about Trump, just as the people who speculated about Biden will demand evidence about Trump. With that in mind, I'm curious, what's everyone's stance on American manufacturing? Do you agree with Steve Jobs that "Those jobs aren't coming back"?
- mmooss 1y agoMurder is nothing new in my city - people have been doing it for centuries. Warfare, famine, epidemics are nothing new in most parts of the world.
- leereeves 1y ago> Murder is nothing new in my city Murder is an interesting example, because like corruption, people overlook it when "their side" does it. Governments employ soldiers to do it on demand. Gang members and mafiosos use it as a tool. Sometimes people even celebrate it, such as equating body count with success in war. The problem in politics is that everyone seems to choose a side, then apply that same kind of double standard. Rules for thee and not for me, as it were. Edit: but of course, "war is the continuation of politics by other means." So it makes sense that the behavior would be similar. > Warfare is entirely different. Not so much. A lot of people are already talking about civil war. If political differences escalate to that point, how many will mourn the loss of lives from "the other side"?
- rr808 1y agoInteresting, does the proportion by weight, size, value or count? eg a EV battery could be 25% of the weight, 50% of the cost and 0.01% of the number of parts.
- iav 1y agoItems that contain multiple elements get the highest tariff rate of any of them - a glass window with aluminum frame gets the aluminum rate because it’s the highest one.
- chipsrafferty 1y agoBut how do you determine where to divide objects into components?
- somenameforme 1y agoThere's a much more informative article here. [1] It's by value. And it's not just domestic only but USMCA (US-Mexico-Canada). And the tariffs are seemingly prorated by percent 'domestic' (their example math is nonsensical, but I think that was just a math fail on the writer's part) with numerous relief and rebate options available to help ease in the transition period for various auto manufacturers. GM, Ford, and other companies have chimed in positively. [1] - https://www.carscoops.com/2025/04/trump-eases-auto-tariffs-last-minute-as-buyers-brace-for-sticker-shock/ https://www.carscoops.com/2025/04/trump-eases-auto-tariffs-l...
- vlovich123 1y ago> GM, Ford, and other companies have chimed in positively. Given how Amazon tried to start showing the cost of the tariffs on their site, Trump publicly threatened them, and they backed down with hours, I’m not so sure I read too much into anyone praising the policies of this government as it’s clear that companies are erring on the side of staying on this governments good graces publicly regardless of personal opinions.
- yalogin 1y ago[flagged]
- andreygrehov 1y ago> The change will allow carmakers with US factories to reduce the amount they pay in import taxes on foreign parts, using a formula tied to how many cars they sell and the price. Tesla has been one of the best selling car across the world. I don’t think it’s just the parts alone.
- AraceliHarker 1y agoThen they would just change the rules so that only Tesla could be exempt from the tariffs.
- HenryBemis 1y agoI wonder if/when (going from N to S) Canada, US, Mexico will form a "North American Union" (in the spirit of the European Union). 50 years? 100 years? never? Current politics aside, I think: Canada and US have 'very much' in common (I'd risk saying (imho) 85% common 'stuff'). Canada, US and Mexico have 'plenty' in common (mostly Christian, capitalism/consumerism, way of life) (I'd risk saying (imho) 70% common 'stuff'). Once Mexico sorts out this 'minor' (cough-damn!!!-cough) problem (mass graves, decapitated and/or missing students, murder of anyone that doesn't want uncontrolled drug trafficking, etc.) this idea could start becoming a reality.
- voidUpdate 1y agoI mean, the US is already a sort of "north american union", I still don't know why it's one country when all the individual states are so diverse and want different things
- Jensson 1y ago> I still don't know why it's one country when all the individual states are so diverse and want different things The US civil war decided that states doesn't have those rights so it became a country instead of a union.
- chiph 1y agoI was expecting Hyundai to have a higher domestic content, actually. Culturally, they seem to prefer to be vertically integrated. I would expect something like the Santa Fe (produced in Alabama) to draw nearly all their parts from local partner and related firms (is "chaebol" an anti-trust term in the US?) and not import major parts like BMW does in Greer SC where engines are flown in on cargo 747s from Germany. I won't say that NAFTA is dead, but supply and production lines were designed with the assumption the parts could cross the borders any number of times without paying duty. The WSJ looked at the Ford 10-speed transmission used in the F-150 and it apparently crosses the Canadian border at least 3 times, paying different duties each time depending on the content (machined aluminum casting, steel planetary gear sets, subassemblies, etc.) My guess is that by imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the government is intending to block the Chinese firms who are attempting to back-door their way into the US economy by building factories in the traditional maquiladora areas. Bold move, let's see how it plays out.
- porphyra 1y agoTesla also has a strong culture of preferring vertical integration. And most research unambiguously shows that Teslas are the most Anerican-made.
- 542354234235 1y agoSource? OP comment has actual numbers and sourcing, so to state otherwise needs more than taking your word for it.
- porphyra 1y ago* cars.com American made index: https://www.cars.com/american-made-index/ https://www.cars.com/american-made-index/ * kogod American auto index: https://kogod.american.edu/autoindex/2024 https://kogod.american.edu/autoindex/2024
- protimewaster 1y agoThe Kogod index includes things that likely aren't considered by the government when considering if a product is American made, though. It considers things like where the headquarters is.