Tesla is soaring after Trump's new tariffs while traditional auto stocks sink
Tesla
stock rose as much as 7% Thursday morning in an otherwise difficult day for traditional automakers, following President Donald Trump's newly announced
auto tariffs
.
Meanwhile,
General Motors
saw the biggest declines in the
S&P 500
, falling 9% at intraday lows.
Ford
and
Volkswagen
both slid about 5%.
The explanation is straightforward:
Tesla is seen as insulated
from levies that will increase the cost of business for companies more reliant on vehicle and part imports. Two of the EV-maker's biggest factories are in California and Texas.
"Tesla would be less exposed to tariffs as their production and assembly is all in the US," the Wedbush Securities analyst
Dan Ives
wrote.
Other EV stocks also got a boost, with
Rivian
up 8% and
Lucid
rising 4% at intraday highs. The chart below shows why: All of the cars sold in the US by the three companies are manufactured domestically.
"Among auto manufacturers and suppliers, we consider the most exposed to these tariffs to be 'Detroit Three' automakers GM, STLA, and F, as well as Canada-based auto supplier MGA, while TSLA screens as the least exposed," CFRA Research said in a Tuesday note, referring to previous tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
For its part, Tesla
said in a post on X
that its vehicles are the "most American-made cars," likely referring to a
Cars.com
index
also cited by CFRA.
But in his own
post
, CEO Elon Musk that Tesla won't go unscathed: "The tariff impact on Tesla is still significant."
"Even Tesla, which manufactures most of its vehicles in the US, will pay more for parts because of competition amongst all manufacturers competing for the existing supply of non-tariffed parts, materials, and components," Mark Malek, the chief investment officer at Siebert Financial, said in written commentary.