On August 19, 2025, the US trade department expanded steel and aluminum tariffs by 50 % to 407 new product categories. In addition to these newly added categories, imported parts for automotive removal systems and electrical steel, which are essential for electric vehicle components, are essential.
This includes exhaust components that are used in internal combustion models and important EV metal inputs -things such as stator steel in EV engines and electrical steel for batteries. For a work such as Spartanburg, which is based on both traditional and traditional vehicles on global procurement, these new tasks are implemented directly in cost hikes.
BMW marginal pressure: Be already felt
BMW has already marked the effects of tariffs. In its automotive segment, the company expects around 1.25 percentage points for the profit margin for 2025, with 1.5 points being addressed in the first half.
Spartanburg’s advantages and limits
There is a silver strip: Spartanburg works in a US free trade zone, which means that parts that were imported for export for vehicles could escape these tariffs. The system even thought about adding shifts to increase the performance by up to 80,000 units, partly to absorb political shocks.
In the meantime, the BMW CEO Oliver Zipse remains publicly optimistic and indicate the scale of the work and the export performance as a potential leverity. In addition, BMW is confident that a proposed EU-US “Netting mechanism”, which would enable exports from the United States, which could compensate for the value to anchor import duties, to compensate for the damage.
BMWS Spartanburg, South Carolina, is not only of crucial importance for BMW – it is monumental. In 2024 it put together 396,117 sports activities and coupes, including over 57,000 plug -in -hybrids (about 14 % of its volume). Almost 225,000 vehicles were exported, with the total export value of 10 billion US dollars made to value via the top exporter in the USA. A total of around 63 % of the production of the work has been exported since 2014.
Why this Spartanburg meets tougher than before
In former tariffs, BMW weathered domestic steel and aluminum tariffs at the end of 2010. However, the current wave is different because it hits automotive parts itself, not just raw materials. This means that components are now more expensive for both the combustion and electrical drive trains-especially EV-specific elements such as electrical steel-sind.
The EV extension of BMW in the amount of 1.7 billion US dollars in Spartanburg (including the battery meeting) is now facing a more expensive reality until EVS rolls off the line. And with exports that include most of the system performance, every shift in export competitivity is followed.
Conclusion: Spartanburg had long been built by BMW’s US flagship – for exports and gradually leaned into the electrification. But Trump’s expanded tariffs are now aiming at components at the center of both supply chains – not just raw materials. This layer of complexity and exposure comes at a critical time, as BMW tries to scale the EV production from its US base.
The BMW options are clear: Accelerate the US localization of EV parts (a multi-year effort), you rely on free exceptions for export-bound vehicles and races for trading accommodation such as the EU-US network mechanism.
