• Audi is holding back vehicles that have arrived in ports in the U.S.
The U.S. administration’s 25-percent auto tariffs on imported vehicles are having the predicted effect, throughout the industry.
Already, Jaguar Land Rover has suspended exports to the U.S. for a month, Volkswagen has curtailed bringing in vehicles assembled in Mexico, and Stellantis has paused production at its Windsor, Ontario plant for two weeks, which is having a knock-on effect among its suppliers.
Now German manufacturer Audi, which doesn’t build vehicles in the U.S., is reported by Automotive News to have informed American dealers that vehicles that arrived in American ports after April 2nd will not be processed and sent to dealerships.
Vehicles that arrived before April 2nd will be distributed, along with a note on their information sheet indicating they are not affected by the tariffs.
Audi did not indicate when a return to normal deliveries might happen. Some models could be hit with customs duties of up to 50 percent, among them the Q5, which is manufactured in Mexico and is not protected by the CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement).
Audi, like other brands, is monitoring the situation closely. Parent company Volkswagen has suspended its deliveries from Mexico. Porsche has also reportedly suspended its shipments of new models to the U.S.