Porsche, a luxury automaker has said it absorbed $351 million in U.S. import tariffs during April and May 2025 to protect its customers from price increases.
The hit, equivalent to €300 million, was disclosed in investor presentation slides released ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings. It’s a sharp clarification from previous comments which only cited “low triple-digit millions” in projected impact. The update shows the mounting pressure European automakers face amid escalating U.S.–EU trade tensions over electric vehicle subsidies and carbon border adjustments.
“We made a deliberate choice not to pass the burden onto our customers,” said Lutz Meschke, Porsche’s Chief Financial Officer, in a post-call statement. “Our U.S. buyers expect uncompromised excellence, and we intend to deliver — even at a short-term cost.”
The move, while applauded by Porsche’s U.S. dealership network, comes with a long-term cost warning. Analysts at Deutsche Bank say if trade disputes linger, European luxury brands like Porsche could lose pricing power or shrink U.S. margins. Porsche, which delivered nearly 80,000 vehicles in North America in 2024, relies heavily on the U.S. for global performance.
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