The U.S. sweeping new tariffs on auto imports will add cost to its own car industry to the tune of billions of dollars, with devastating impacts to be felt for years to come, said an industry expert from an American automotive production forecasting database solution provider based in Pennsylvania. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on cars and car parts imported into the United States starting on April 2, sending U.S. and European stocks tumbling and igniting threats of retaliatory measures from its major trading partners. In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Sam Fiorani, vice president of Global Vehicle Forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, emphasized that these tariffs will lead to an increase in the average price of vehicles, thereby making it more challenging for consumers to purchase affordable vehicles. "This is going to cost the industry billions of dollars, and it's going to cost consumers a lot of money as well. When you add the tariffs to these vehicles, entry level vehicles will disappear because they won't make any financial sense to the manufacturers to make. A lot of those vehicles come from Mexico or South Korea. And once you remove those vehicles, then we're going to see the average price of a vehicle, which is already closing in on 50,000 dollars today, it's going to easily crest 50,000 dollars after this goes into effect. We're going to have fewer choices for consumers and just more expensive vehicles in the next few months and going forward for years," he said. The tariffs will place substantial pressure on manufacturers, as they will need to invest billions of dollars in establishing new production facilities and upgrading existing ones, according to Fiorani. "When we push those prices up, the entry level vehicle will now be in the 35,000 dollars range and pushing a lot of people out of the market and into the used market, which will increase the price of used cars going forward. So, this is a problem for all buyers as they deal with what they had dealt with semiconductor issue a few years ago, when dealers didn't have enough vehicles and prices rose dramatically. And it's going to add billions of dollars to cost to manufacturers as they open new plants and hundreds of millions of dollars to retool existing plants. It's going to be a devastating effect on manufacturing and these companies for years to come," said Fiorani. SHOTLIST: FILE: Washington D.C., USA - Oct 2024 1. Various of White House, U.S. national flag; Los Angeles, USA - Recent 2. Various of port; 3. Containers at port; USA - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland) 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Fiorani, vice president, Global Vehicle Forecasting, AutoForecast Solutions (ending with shots 5-6): "This is going to cost the industry billions of dollars, and it's going to cost consumers a lot of money as well. When you add the tariffs to these vehicles, entry level vehicles will disappear because they won't make any financial sense to the manufacturers to make. A lot of those vehicles come from Mexico or South Korea. And once you remove those vehicles, then we're going to see the average price of a vehicle, which is already closing in on 50,000 dollars today, it's going to easily crest 50,000 dollars after this goes into effect. We're going to have fewer choices for consumers and just more expensive vehicles in the next few months and going forward for years."; FILE: Mexico - Date Unknown 5. Various of workers at vehicles assembly line; 6. Various of vehicles assembly factory; FILE: Wolfsburg, Germany - Aug 23, 2016 7. Various of auto assembly line; USA - Recent 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Fiorani, vice president, Global Vehicle Forecasting, AutoForecast Solutions: "So when we push those prices up, the entry level vehicle will now be in the 35,000 dollars range and pushing a lot of people out of the market and into the used market, which will increase the price of used cars going forward. So, this is a problem for all buyers as they deal with what they had dealt with semiconductor issue a few years ago, when dealers didn't have enough vehicles and prices rose dramatically. And it's going to add billions of dollars to cost to manufacturers as they open new plants and hundreds of millions of dollars to retool existing plants. It's going to be a devastating effect on manufacturing and these companies for years to come."; FILE: Washington D.C., USA - October 2024 9. Various of national flags of U.S.; FILE: New York City, USA - October 2024 10. Various of national flags of U.S., traffic, buildings. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]