Overview
- This week Toyota announced a $3.6 billion investment to add a second assembly line in San Antonio to build Tacoma trucks and create about 2,000 jobs.
- Toyota’s official release did not cite tariffs and instead praised Texas’s pro-business policies and advanced manufacturing flexibility as reasons for the move.
- U.S. government figures and reporting show the administration’s Section 232 tariffs have already cost tens of billions of dollars, with $35.2 billion attributed to autos and parts and $17.5 billion to steel and aluminum through April.
- Industry studies and reporting link the tariffs to higher new-car sticker prices and weakened demand, with a March Cox Automotive analysis finding a roughly 10.4% rise in suggested retail prices and other coverage pointing to roughly 75,000 manufacturing job losses since January 2025.
- Advocacy groups and analysts say the tariffs have shifted costs onto consumers, dealers, and suppliers, produced wide-ranging estimates of the total economic toll, and created policy uncertainty that can delay or reshape future investments.