Ford CEO Jim Farley announced Wednesday on CNN that the automaker is extending its “employee pricing” offer to car buyers for another month, through July 4, to encourage sales to consumers nervous about rising prices because of new tariffs on imported cars and auto parts.
Farley spoke with CNN’s Erin Burnett to talk about auto tariffs, the US economy and the economic impact of automaking at US plants.
But Farley said he can’t say that Ford prices won’t go up up after the end of the employee pricing offer. He said part of it will be determined by what competitors do with their pricing, since Ford makes more of its vehicles in United States than other automakers.
“We want to keep our prices competitive and low,” he said. “We think this is an opportunity for Ford. We have a different footprint, a different exposure for tariffs.”
But new tariffs will go into effect this Saturday on the parts used to build cars and trucks in the United States, which will raise the cost of production.
“We have to import certain parts,” he said. “We can’t even buy those parts here.”
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday some relief from tariffs on the auto parts that are set to take effect this Saturday. But automakers will still have to pay tariffs on cars and trucks they build here if more than 15% of the parts come from foreign suppliers.
“We have worked with his team every day for the last couple of months,” Farley said when asked if he has a direct line to Trump. “We recognize how important this moment is to get this all right and try to figure it out together. I have to say the engagement there has been very high.”
“We’re all trying to figure this out to do the right thing for the country,” he added. “It’s going to take a little time.”
Farley said it’s not clear that American automakers can source all of their parts from US suppliers, and he defended the use of cheaper imported parts.
“The affordability of parts is a really important thing for America because we’ve got to keep the vehicles affordable,” he said. ‘Yes we want to make them like Ford does in the US, but we also want to make the vehicles affordable that are built in the US. The parts are critical for that.”
Anderson Economics Group, a Michigan-based research firm, estimated a month ago that the auto parts tariffs would raise the cost of producing cars at American plants between $3,000 to $12,000. Tuesday’s change would lower the tariff cost by about $900 to $2,500, the company estimated.
“It’s a significant reduction, but it’s still a big tariff impact from point of view of the consumer,” said Patrick Anderson, the founder and president of the research firm.
The employee pricing is part of Ford’s “From America, For America” campaign, as the company seeks to cast itself as a company deeply rooted in, and entwined with, this nation, as Trump pressures companies to come to shift production from foreign plants to US plants. In addition to the new tariffs on auto parts about to go into effect, there has been a 25% tariffs on imported vehicles in effect since earlier this month.
Most major automakers, including Ford, build some of the cars they sell to Americans at foreign plants. Ford builds a greater percentage of its cars at US plants than any other major automaker other than Tesla. Ford built 2 million cars at American plants in 2024, as well as 391,000 in Mexico and 54,000 in Canada, according to S&P Global Mobility.
One example of that: The 2025 Ford Expedition, which is assembled at Ford’s Kentucky Truck plant in Louisville, Kentucky. But according to government estimates, only 42% of its parts come from Canada or the United States, and the rest comes from lower-wage countries like Mexico. Farley conducted interviews with CNN and other media Wednesday from the factory.
This story has been updated with additional context and developments.
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