This topic discusses the consequences of Trump presidency on Volkswagen. Trump has vowed to impose a tariff of 10% across the board on all imports from Europe and a 100% tariff on vehicles made in Mexico. According to Goldman Sachs, a 10% tariff will reduce EU’s GDP by 1% and cause a 6% to 7% headwind on corporate earnings. North America is one of Volkswagen’s most important regions. In 2023, Volkswagen generated €67.9 billion from North America (page 22, 2023 annual report). As such, Volkswagen is one of Europe’s automakers that could be heavily impacted by the Trump tariffs.
Real-time reporting and first parts of this discussion on Telegram.
Message Archive
Moritz 06.11.2024 - around 13:00
Aron Do you think Volkswagen is down as much today due to Trump or Audis updated guidance? Do we have analyst/commentator opinions how large the impact of a trump presidency on Volkswagen or other German car manufacturers might be? I am very interested to increase the position at current price levels.
Aron
I don’t think it’s Audi since other German automakers’ shares are also down. It’s more likely to be due to Trump presidency as Bloomberg writes
Moritz
Any first thoughts how large the impact of a trump presidency could be for Volkswagen?
Aron Bett
Goldman Sachs estimates that if Trump imposes 10% tariff on EU imports, it will erase around 1% of the region’s GDP. That will reduce corporate earnings by 6% to 7%. Around €207.6bn worth of machinery and vehicles are imported to U.S and Europe. In 2022, Volkswagen’s North America revenue was €60 billion. So even if we assume a 4% headwind on 2025 earnings estimate, that’s around 500 million headwind.
Moritz
Is tariffs on cars also be going to be 10% or something else? Which % of the 60billion in 2022 U.S revenue for Volkswagen have been important vs produced in the U.S? Why assume a 4% headwind? How do you arrive at only 500million?
Aron
The 10% is across the board. Volkswagen doesn’t specify how much of the 60 billion comes from units produced in U.S. I assumed 4% because some units are produced in U.S. For instance in 2023 , its main plant in U.S, Chatanooga plant produced 175,000 units (18% of units sold in North America). But yeah, the headwind could be higher given that he’s also proposing 100% tariff on vehicles made in Mexico. Volkswagen’s Puebla plant in Mexico produced 350,000 units in 2023 (around 35% of units sold in North America). The 500 million (should be 587 million) comes from 4% of 14.7 billion earnings estimate for 2025.
Aron
N/B: That’s my guestimate based on those assumptions
Moritz
I think this topic is a large one. Can you open a new topic for it in the Forum and post it here? Are you absolutely sure that we cannot guestimate better which % of Volkswagen revenues could be affected by tariffs? I think depending on our findings the impact could be way more significant (?) 100% tariffs would mean that cars produced in Mexico could not be sold anymore in the U.S. market but probably need to exported to other regions. This means that Volkswagen would either loose market share in the U.S. and sell fewer cars or need to import even more cars from other regions (e.g. europe). 10% tariffs would still be very significant given that Volkswagen groups aggregate profit margin is not even that high. For example if 40 billion would be subject to a 10% tax and Volkswagen fails to raise prices but is paying the tariff themselves that would mean that it has additional costs of 4billion. This would make some of the products unprofitable so that it would probably choose to sell less products in the U.S. The additional costs would also directly affect earnings
Aron
I haven’t found a better way to guestimate. But in 2019, Trump was proposing to introduce a 25% tariff on car imports. Former VW CEO Diess agreed with Evercore’s projections that such an action will cost Volkswagen €2.5bn a year — or 13 per cent of its expected earnings in a worst case scenario.
I think I will less some costs such as distribution costs in your estimates since that’s incurred after the vehicle is already in the country.