China cooling on the cars. The U.S. imposing tariffs. Hard to see a silver lining.

By Gary S. Vasilash

Back in the good old days of 2024, the tariffs on vehicles exported to the U.S. from the E.U.—things like Porsches, for example—were 2.5%.

Today the tariff is 27.5%.

Friday (August 1) that is supposed to drop to 15%.

Still: 2.5% to 15%.

To put that in real numbers:

A 2.5% tariff on an $80,000 vehicle is $2,000.

A 15% tariff on an $80,000 vehicle is $12,000.

Even rich people would notice the difference.

Porsche reported that in the first half U.S. tariffs cost the company $400 million euros (~$459 million).

According to Oliver Blume, chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, there are three factors affecting the company’s business:

“In China, demand in the premium and luxury segment has fallen sharply. In the U.S., import tariffs are also putting huge pressure on our business. Looking ahead, the movement of the dollar could also have an impact. In addition, the transformation to electric mobility is progressing more slowly than expected overall, with consequences for the supplier network.”

And not only the supplier network.

Porsche is undertaking what it calls a “strategic realignment.”

Part of that realignment means it is going to start negotiating with employees, with the objective, says Dr. Jochen Breckner, member of the Executive Board for Finance and IT, “to make Porsche fit for the future.”

Given the present, the future looks like it is going to be less robust than it would have been.

In the first half of 2024 it delivered 155,945 vehicles globally.

In the first half of 2025 it delivered 146,391 vehicles globally.

Roughly a 6% decline.

While Blume’s observation sounds somewhat bland, there is really a lot of sharp edges to it for Porsche (along with other premium German brands).

The China market is increasingly turning more of Chinese brands including BYD and Geely.

The U.S. 15% tariffs are certainly going to cut in the number of Porsches purchased in the U.S. (how many people are going to, say, delay the purchase, hoping that in a few years the number will be reduced?), and the decreased global value of the dollar means it will take more of them to buy something like a 911.

And the “electric mobility is progressing more slowly than expected overall” is something of an understatement.

While you might think that this is an issue only for people with Porsche money, when GM says it took a $1.1-billion hit in Q2 because of the tariffs, this goes throughout the types of consumers.