Toyota provides for a collapse of 35 % of its profit, due to the increase in customs duties in the United States

The Japanese car manufacturer Toyota, world number one, anticipates a collapse of almost 35 % of its net profit in 2025-2026, due to the cost of American customs surcharge estimated at more than 1 billion euros.

This expected fall in net profit in the offbeat fiscal year started at the beginning of April, at 3,100 billion yen (19 billion euros), is much more pronounced than expected. Toyota nevertheless relies on increasing sales (+ 1 %). “The estimated impact of American customs duties imposed in April and May 2025 has been temporarily taken into account” And valued at 180 billion yen (1.1 billion euros), the Japanese group said.

The administration of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has applied 25 % surcharge since the beginning of April to cars imported in the United States, but also recently on imports of parts, such as engines and transmissions.

These customs duties “Are currently the subject of negotiations” between Tokyo and Washington, and “The details [sur leurs niveaux définitifs] are still blurred, so it is difficult to predict them ” Completely, recognized Toyota CEO, Koji Sato on Thursday. “On the other hand, customs duties have already been taxed, so we have taken their impact into account”he said.

A quarter of the world’s world sales made in the United States

The subject is sensitive in the archipelago: the automotive industry has approximately one in eight employment and represents 28 % of Japanese exports for the United States. Toyota, who, as his competitors already suffers from the outpouring of world sales of cars and regulatory surveys in Japan, is particularly vulnerable to the Washington customs offensive. In the year 2024, the manufacturer had produced a quarter of its world sales in the United States, switches to 2.33 million vehicles, of which 1.06 million had been imported.

“In the short term, we adjust our deliveries [vers les Etats-Unis]while in the medium and long term we will continue to develop local production adapted to customers ” Americans, also said Mr. Sato.

Toyota has ten factories in the United States, but is also strongly established in Mexico, as part of cross-border production chains now severely disrupted, despite recent softenings unveiled by Mr. Trump for spare parts. The company had announced, in February, the first imminent deliveries of its eleventh site, a battery factory for electric and hybrid vehicles in North Carolina, an investment at $ 14 billion testifying to its increased commitment in the country.

While in March was clarified the prospect of customs barriers and the probability that they have repercussions on selling prices, American buyers have hastened their purchase to escape the ax. In March, last month spared by the surcharge, Toyota saw its sales jump by 7.7 % over a year in the United States, against a decline of 0.3 % in the financial year 2024-2025.

These forecasts are part of the wake of dull results. In the past year 2024-2025 completed at the end of March, Toyota saw its net profit fall by 3.6 %, to 4,765 billion yen (29.2 billion euros), for an increase of 6.5 % of turnover, to 48,037 billion yen (295 billion euros). Figures weighed down by a dive in Japan until last fall due to reminders and delivery stops ordered by Japanese regulators. Sales in China, a crucial market, also plunged by around 6 % due to the competition from Chinese manufacturers, including Byd, champion of the electric car.