World trade: Auto exports are going to – USA under Trump’s largest sales market

In 2024, the crisping German auto industry exported more new cars. The most important sales market are the United States, where there are additional tariffs under President Donald Trump, figures from the Federal Statistical Office show. That would hit the German car manufacturers and suppliers hard who fight with burglaries.

According to the statistics, around 3.4 million new cars worth 135 billion euros from Germany were delivered all over the world last year. This increased the export amount by 2.5 percent in the previous year, but the value of exports fell slightly by 1.3 percent. Export purely electrically operated cars grew by almost 12 percent and reached a share of a good quarter with 881,000 cars.

USA most important sales market in front of Great Britain

No other country took as many new cars from Germany as the USA: they were at the forefront of 13.1 percent of exports, followed by Great Britain (11.3 percent) and France (7.4 percent). According to the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), exports to the United States have increased to the previous year. However, the exports were under the pre-Corona level of 2019 with 3.5 million vehicles, said VDA chief economist Manuel Kallweit.

Around 1.8 million new cars were imported to Germany in 2024. This means that imports dropped by 11.5 and value by 12.8 percent.

Trump threatens 25 percent inches on cars from the EU

The numbers show how vulnerable the German auto industry is in the case of new US tariffs. Trump has threatened with an import duty of 25 percent on the EU cars. He wants to comment specifically at the beginning of April. So far, a customs rate of 2.5 percent applies to auto imports from the EU to the USA, and the EU calculates ten percent the other way around.

Mercedes boss Ola Källenius has pleaded on cars in the trade dispute for the elimination of all tariffs. “Let us lower these tariffs to zero on both sides,” he recently told the “Handelsblatt”.

Additional US tariffs would not only put a lot of strain on Mercedes, but the entire industry. The US market is one of the most important sales markets for all German car manufacturers. Almost every third Porsche and every sixth BMW were sold in North America in 2024, and the proportion was 12 to 15 percent at VW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

VW, BMW and Mercedes operate large works in the USA and also serve the US market from Mexico. Nevertheless, in large numbers from Europe. BMW, for example, calculates with a significantly falling profit margin if the United States should increase the import duties for cars to the EU level of ten percent, said CFO Walter Mertl recently. The German suppliers would also be severely affected by higher tariffs. It was only on Thursday that ZF from Friedrichshafen announced a loss of billions.

Customs dispute between the EU and the USA rocks up

The trade conflict between the EU and the USA threatens to escalate. Trump has already implemented US tariffs from 25 percent on steel and aluminum imports. The EU then announced against tariffs to a number of American products, including bourbon whiskey and motorcycles. Further steps are planned for mid -April. In return, Trump threatened with tariffs of 200 percent on wine, champagne and other alcoholic drinks.