Nissan has reportedly joined a raft of automakers promising to keep new car prices steady through May despite tariffs raising the cost they pay to bring cars to the U.S. for sale.
Industry publication Automotive News reports that the company “told dealers it won’t raise prices to account for tariffs on imported vehicles until at least June 2.”
At least four other brands have made a similar pledge:
Most automakers have not commented on their pricing plans, and Ford has reportedly warned dealers they could see price hikes as soon as May.
How They Can Do This
The White House enacted a 25% tariff on most new cars entering the country from outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico on April 3. A second set of tariffs will kick in in early May, raising the cost of importing car parts. Since all cars built in North America use imported parts, that will increase the prices of those cars that escaped April’s tariffs.
Related: How Each Automaker is Responding to Tariffs
How can automakers afford not to raise consumer prices when their costs have increased?
Because dealers have a supply of cars that have already been imported at pre-tariff prices. They can still sell those cars profitably without raising prices.
Nissan dealers ended last month with a 91-day supply, though that figure has likely shrunk by now thanks to strong April sales.
As they drain down that supply, however, they’ll need to pay higher replacement costs for new inventory. So, dealers will have to start raising prices to cover the impending higher costs. Some may need to raise prices before they run out of pre-tariff cars to have enough cash on hand to buy post-tariff inventory.
Nissan Advertising Pre-Tariff Prices
Nissan has embraced the inventory chart as a marketing strategy. Newsweek reports that the company “is responding to the evolving Trump tariff situation with a full-throated marketing campaign boasting about its tariff-free stock.”
“We saw a massive increase in late March — as in numbers like 2000% or so — of consumers searching for things like ‘should I buy now?’ and ‘Nissan car prices’, so our team reacted quickly to share what we had to offer,” explains Allyson Witherspoon, Chief Marketing Officer for Nissan U.S. Operations.