The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter, writes a blog, Starkman Approved.
By Eric Startkman
2025 EV Chevy EV Blazer
While Donald Trump last year talked smack about wanting to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian-made products as part of his effort to “Make America Great Again,” GM CEO Mary Barra ramped up her ambitions to make the automaker’s Mexican-made electric vehicles more decidedly un-American.
The 2025 Chevy EV Blazer and EV Equinox vehicles, which Barra builds in Mexico and are still eligible for lucrative $7,500 consumer tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act championed by her friend Joe Biden, have only 12% parts that were manufactured in the U.S. and Canada, compared with 62% percent of the 2024 models.
The American Automotive Labeling Act of 1994 allowed automakers to label both U.S. and Canadian-manufactured parts as being domestically made.
GM’s 2024 Blazer and Equinox EVs had a Chinese-made parts content of 18%, but the 2025 models of these vehicles have an insignificant number. Instead, GM used more parts sourced from Mexico and South Korea.
Mexican-made automotive parts increasingly are manufactured by China-owned companies, and these parts are finding their way in vehicles manufactured in the U.S. The value of Chinese auto parts made in Mexico and exported to the US reached $1.1 billion in 2023, up 15% from the year earlier, Bloomberg reported. In 2022, there were 33 Chinese auto parts makers registered in Mexico, 18 of which exported to the US, according to Bloomberg.
GM’s reduction of U.S. parts in its Mexican-made EVs was first reported by GM Authority, an independent publication focused on the automaker.
GM CEO Mary Barra (GM photo)
GM would be severely impacted if Trump made good on his tariff threats, which will supposedly be implemented on Tuesday. Under Barra’s leadership, GM has moved to reduce its UAW workforce and lessen its use of U.S.-made parts. In addition to becoming Mexico’s biggest vehicle manufacturer where it pays factory workers poverty wages, GM increasingly has used more foreign made parts, even in the vehicles the automaker manufacturers in the U.S.
Just months after Biden assumed office, Barra announced a $1 billion investment to electrify one of GM’s plants in Mexico, a move the UAW called “a slap in the face.” GM disclosed last June that it would build its entry-level Cadillac Optiq in Mexico, indicating that Barra wasn’t all that concerned about Trump’s tariff saber rattling or didn’t think he’d get reelected. Individuals tied to GM overwhelmingly contributed to Kamala Harris’s campaign.
Domestic Content Since 2015
According to a study by American University’s Kogod School of Business, the total domestic content (TDC) of GM’s vehicles declined to 54% in 2024 from 66% in 2015. Barra assumed command of GM in 2014.
The 2024 American-made index compiled by Cars.com, which is based on critical considerations such as parts content, engine and transmission origin, and U.S. manufacturing workforce, distinguishes GM as a truly anti-MAGA company.
Not one GM vehicle ranked in the Top 20, nor did any of Ford’s, which also increasingly has used foreign parts in its vehicles despite falsely claiming on its website that it is “All In On America.” GM’s top ranked vehicles on the American-made vehicles list were its Colorado and Canyon pickup trucks, respectively ranking No. 23 and 24.
Honda and Toyota in recent years have increased the composition of American-made parts in their vehicles sold in the U.S. Honda and its luxury Acura brand captured nine of the top 20 Made in America spots, Toyota and its luxury Lexis division captured four, and Tesla had three. VW’s electric ID.4 was the third most American-made vehicle, while Stellantis’ Jeep and Dodge divisions each captured individual spots.
Source: GM Authority
Honda’s commitment to build in the U.S. reflects the Japan-based company's corporate beliefs and values, which are antithetical to Barra’s.
“Honda has a traditional quality to manufacture where demand exists,” Toshihiro Mibe, Honda’s president and CEO, said at the ground-breaking ceremony for Honda’s electric battery plant in rural Ohio, a milestone he thought important enough to attend. “Because we want to supply high quality automobiles for American customers, we naturally want to build cars and the batteries here in America.”
China imposes prohibitive tariffs on vehicles exported to that country, which is why Barra plans to build the Cadillac Optiq with a joint venture Chinese partner for consumers in that country. China was once GM’s biggest and most profitable market, but under Barra’s watch the automaker is losing millions of dollars and has lost significant market share.
GM president Mark Reuss
In 2022, GM president Mark Reuss announced that GM would launch a China-based premium import business focused on sales of high-margin, “iconic vehicles” from the U.S. While GM was once a premium brand in China, the country’s consumers have come to regard the automaker’s vehicles as stodgy and technologically inferior.
A Pipedream
Reuss’s initiative proved yet another GM pipedream under the leadership of Barra.
GM’s increased Mexican focus and utilization of more foreign parts is very much at odds with Barra’s claim that she shares Trump’s goal to strengthen U.S. manufacturing.
"We have stressed the importance of a strong manufacturing sector and American leadership in advanced technologies," Barra told analysts on a recent call to discuss GM’s profits and outlook. "It's clear that we share a lot of common ground and we have appreciated the dialogue. We believe the president wants to use policy and regulations in ways that will strengthen, not harm domestic manufacturers like GM."
President Trump (White House photo)
Trump’s tariff plans clearly aren’t well thought out and researched. The president thinks he can simply issue an edict and Mexico and Canada will bend to his will, but they likely will impose some retaliatory tariffs. It’s almost certain that 25% tariffs would significantly raise the cost of new vehicles, which already are beyond the means of most Americans.
Higher tariffs could force GM and Ford to move more salaried jobs outside the country. Ford’s engineering facility in Mexico is already the largest in Latin America, where employees work on vehicles Ford builds in the U.S. and elsewhere. Stellantis has moved to recruiting a majority of its engineering workforce in countries like Morocco, India and Brazil.
Cars.com Most American-Made Vehicles
I’ve found no mention of Trump wanting to impose tariffs on intellectual property developed outside the U.S. for manufacturing use in America, yet design and engineering positions pay considerably better than automotive jobs.
Trump considers the stock market the best barometer of his success. GM’s stock took a pounding last week because of concerns relating to Trump’s tariffs, and I doubt he’d want to be held responsible for derailing GM’s highly profitable business building problem plagued, gas guzzling, trucks and SUVs.
That would be great for the oil companies, and provide more reason for them to further his agenda and “drill baby, drill.”
Lacks Industrial Strategy
All Americans should be alarmed that America lacks a cohesive and well thought out industrial strategy that includes a globally competitive automotive industry like China conceived and executed.
In the 1990s, China’s government concluded it couldn’t foster a competitive automotive industry focused on gas engine vehicles. Instead, the government focused on spawning a world-class electric vehicle industry and had the foresight to corner the market on some of the critical materials.
Former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm
China’s automotive strategy was overseen by a former Audi executive with considerable experience. America’s EV strategy these past four years was overseen by Biden administration members, former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm.
Need I say more?
China’s EV makers and suppliers have set up shop in Mexico and are helping develop that country’s EV infrastructures. GM under Barra can no longer compete in China, or for that matter in Mexico. Most of the vehicles GM sells in Mexico are imported from China.
Trump believes his tariffs will help make America great again. In fact, they very well could accelerate America’s downward trajectory and provide even more opportunities for China to achieve its world domination ambitions.
