How much a 100% ‘Made in the USA’ vehicle might cost

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A white 2025 Ford Expedition SUV with bronze exterior trim rolled off the assembly line at Ford Motor‘s Kentucky Truck Plant. It was assembled — from its frame to completion — by American workers at the factory. But it’s far from being completely “Made in the USA.”

A majority of its main parts — at least 58% as stated on a window sticker — were made outside the country, including 22% from Mexico. That includes its Ford-engineered, 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 Ecoboost engine, the heart of the vehicle.

The popular large SUV is a prime example of how complicated the global automotive supply chain is, and underscores the reality that even vehicles rolling off U.S. assembly lines from quintessentially American companies such as Ford can rely heavily on nondomestic content.

The massive Kentucky assembly plant, which has more than 9,000 people building the Expedition, F-Series pickup trucks and Lincoln Navigator SUV, is exactly the kind of facility President Donald Trump is pressuring automakers to build in the U.S. through his use of aggressive tariffs.

After Trump put 25% tariffs on imported vehicles and many automotive parts, automakers started scrambling to tout U.S. investments and localize supply chains as much as possible. But while the country would benefit from jobs and economic output if all auto parts were sourced and manufactured in the U.S., experts say it’s just not feasible.

“Some parts that have been offshored will still be cheaper to manufacture in those locations rather than the USA at scale even with some of the imposed tariffs,” said Martin French, a longtime supplier executive and partner at Berylls Strategy Advisors USA.

Processing and production plants for things such as steel, aluminum and semiconductor chips, especially older ones used for autos, as well as raw materials such as platinum and palladium, aren’t prevalent enough in the U.S. without establishing new plants or mines. Those are processes experts say would take a decade or more to create at scale.

On top of that, the increased costs of a 100% U.S.-made vehicle could price many consumers out of the new vehicle market. That could in turn lead to less demand and likely lower production.

“We can move everything to the U.S., but if every Ford is $50,000, we’re not going to win as a company,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said last week on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “That’s a balancing act that every [automaker] will have to do, even the most American company.”

Farley said 15% to 20% of commoditized vehicle parts are difficult, if not impossible, to source currently in the U.S. That includes things such as small fasteners, labor-intensive wiring harnesses and almost $5,000 in semiconductors per vehicle, which are currently sourced largely from Asia.

S&P Global Mobility reports there are on average 20,000 parts in a vehicle when it’s torn down to its nuts and bolts. Parts may originate in anywhere from 50 to 120 countries.

For example, the Ford F-150, which shares a platform and some parts with the Expedition, is exclusively assembled in the U.S. but has roughly 2,700 main billable parts, which exclude many small pieces, according to Caresoft, an engineering benchmarking and consulting firm.

The Trump administration could ease higher prices for an American-made vehicle by offering tax breaks or consumer incentives, much like the electric vehicle credit of up to $7,500 that Trump previously promised to eliminate.

But the costs of a 100% American-made vehicle are far greater and more complex than they might seem at first blush. It’s even hard to track what comes from the U.S., as automakers are required to report a combined percentage of Canadian and U.S. content in a vehicle, not just U.S. content.

The material costs alone, excluding manufacturing investments, would add thousands of dollars to a vehicle’s price point, which would wipe out profits for automakers and force price increases for consumers, several automotive analysts and executives told CNBC.

The people, who were given anonymity so they could speak freely, estimated it would add thousands of dollars with each step you took to get closer to 100% U.S. and Canadian parts.