New vehicle prices are already rising an average $2,000 due to Trump tariffs. They could be hit with another big increase as the president readies a 50% tariff on the miles of copper found in today’s automobiles. Headlight.News has more.
Today’s high-tech automobiles use hundreds of pounds of copper in motors, wires and electronics like this infotainment system.
Copper is ubiquitous in today’s world, found in everything from microwaves to machinery, consumer electronics to automobiles. The typical vehicle has miles of wiring, with the ductile, conductive metal also used in its battery and infotainment system.
And with Pres. Donald Trump on Tuesday announcing plans for yet another tariff, targeting import copper with duties of 50%, that could mean big increases in the cost of virtually everything electrical or electronic, especially automobiles, since about half of the metal used in the U.S. is imported.
“Today we’re doing copper,” the president said during a Tuesday cabinet meeting, sending the price of the commodity soaring on exchanges around the world even before a tariff is put into place.
Auto industry at tariff Ground Zero
A worker at a Stellantis plant installs a harness that can have several miles of copper wire.
Since taking office in January, Trump has enacted a wide range of new tariffs, though many, including those targeting smartphones, computers and pharmaceuticals, have been delayed or put on hold. But among those now in effect, the auto industry has found itself at Ground Zero. These include 25% tariffs on imported autos and auto parts, as well as foreign-sourced steel and aluminum. As a result, the average vehicle price is now set to rise about $2,000, according to various reports from AlixPartners, S&P Global Mobility and others.
Now comes copper. While there may be more steel in the typical vehicle, the conductive metal is ubiquitous when it comes to today’s automobiles. It’s found in the motors in power seats, windows and mirrors; a variety of fans and blowers; infotainment systems and powertrain control units. And, noted Sam Abuelsamid, lead analyst at Telemetry Research, there can be miles of copper in a modern wiring harness, all told adding up to “a couple hundred pounds.”
And that’s for vehicles with internal combustion engines. “A typical electric vehicle battery pack (alone) can contain up to 220 pounds of copper,” according to ElectraMet, a company providing recycling and recovery technology for metals and other materials.
Copper prices surge
A commodity chart shows the surge in copper prices.
The president’s announcement was not unexpected. “I’ve been surprised it’s taken this long to get the copper tariff,” Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, said during an interview on CNN.
Copper prices have been soaring on commodity exchanges for months, rising 38% since the beginning of the year. The jump was 15% on Tuesday alone, reaching a record $5.66 a pound at one point before settling back slightly. And that’s for the raw metal. The cost of copper wiring, among other parts and finished materials, has gone up even more. So, even where domestically sourced copper is used, prices are soaring.
The U.S. produces roughly half of the copper it uses, according to Reuters, with two-thirds of that coming from Arizona. The bulk of the rest – worth a total of $17 billion last year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department – came primarily from Chile, though Canada and Peru also provide some of the metal.
More Tariff News
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- June Car Sales Stall Under Weight of Tariffs
What will this cost
New vehicle prices could surge by hundreds of dollars — thousands for some EVs, like this Cadillac Celestiq.
If anything, demand for copper has been fast rising in the U.S., the auto industry, in particular. New domestic sources have been identified, though a massive project in Arizona has been stalled for over a decade. It’s possible the White House may use the new tariffs as leverage to get that operation going. Even then, however, production would take years to launch.
In the meantime, said Abuelsamid, the automotive industry is pricing for impact because a 50% tariff on imported copper “is going to have a huge impact on costs.”
In even the most basic vehicles, that should add up to hundreds of dollars, he and other sources agreed. In EVs with extended-range battery packs, prices could rise by a thousand or more.
That’s on top of the price hikes that had already driven the cost of a new vehicle to record levels over the past year. The figure topped $50,000 in April, according to tracking firm Cloud Theory, even before Trump tariffs on imported autos, steel and aluminum went into effect.
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