• by Tanya Gazdik , April 3, 2025

Ford Motor Co. is lowering prices on most of its vehicles to the same levels it charges employees in a bid to boost sales as tariffs kick in.

The new program, which the company is calling “From America, for America,” could help reduce a large inventory of unsold cars, according to The New York Times.

The automaker is debuting a 30-second video, "Commitment," from Wieden+Kennedy, voiced by Ford spokesman Bryan Cranston, that will run on TV during this weekend’s Final Four basketball games. It touts Ford as being the automaker that employs the most hourly workers and assembles the most vehicles in the country.

Print ads will run in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Washington Post. Billboards and streaming buys are also planned. 

The discounts apply to almost all new 2024 and 2025 Ford and Lincoln vehicles, except for specialty versions of the Bronco sport-utility vehicle, the Mustang, Super Duty versions of F-Series pickups and a few other models. The deal is expected to run through June 2.

Ford had more than 568,000 vehicles in inventory at the end of March, up about 8% from a year ago.

Rob Kaffl, Ford’s director of U.S. sale and dealer relations, says the aim is to inject some clarity for buyers.

"When we looked at where we stand today, even after a really strong March, our inventory levels are super healthy across our dealer network," Kaffl told The Detroit News. "We also think there's a ton of uncertainty right now that's out in the market. So we feel like this type of program is the right time, it's the right incentive, and it's the right message to our consumers that obviously, during some maybe instability, or news that may not be accurate, that today we do have a very healthy stack of vehicles, and this employee pricing would add some of that certainty to what could be an uncertain situation that the consumers are hearing through different media outlets or commercials that they're looking at."

The automaker is extending another incentive program in which buyers of new electric models get a home charger for free, along with the cost of installation. That offer is now valid until June 30.

Ford’s foreign-built vehicles are eligible for the promotion. The automaker builds the Maverick small pickup, Bronco Sport SUV and all-electric Mustang Mach-E crossover in Mexico. It imports the Lincoln Nautilus from China.

There is nowhere to hide in the auto industry from President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs, according to former Ford CEO Mark Fields.

“The cost of vehicles will go up. It’s just math. The bottom line is, there is absolutely no vehicle that won’t be impacted by tariffs,” Fields told CNN in a phone interview.

Trump’s 25% tariff on imported cars kicked in on Thursday. The administration plans to impose tariffs on imported car parts by May 3. 

Even cars assembled at U.S. factories will likely get more expensive because they use many foreign parts. Goldman Sachs estimates the cost of foreign-made cars will increase by between $5,000 and $15,000 per vehicle due to tariffs.

Bank of America estimates that a 25% tariff on all imported auto parts would increase the cost of U.S. assembled vehicles by about $26 billion — or around $3,285 per vehicle on average.

If automakers pass through the entire 25% tariff to consumers, U.S .auto sales could tumble by about 3.2 million vehicles, or roughly 20% of the current annual sales trend. Even if automakers aim to just break even by passing along only 15% of the tariff cost to consumers, auto sales would still drop by about 2.5 million, per Bank of America.

“It is still looming for all of us,” Shenan Reed, global chief media officer at General Motors, said at the Association of National Advertisers Media Conference on April 1. “I think our businesses need to adjust first, and our money will adjust second.”