“Liberation Day” has arrived. Get ready to be liberated from affordable vehicle prices. 

As promised, President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariffs for imported vehicles went into effect Thursday, sending the auto industry into full panic mode. Some analysts are predicting a $5,000 to $10,000 price hike on new cars out of the gate, while others are still struggling to wrap their heads around the logic of Trump’s auto tariffs. It was a nuclear-level threat for the already unsettled auto industry, with little relief in sight. 

Trump’s argument is relatively straightforward, if nonsensical: Don’t like the tariffs? Just buy an American-made car. The only problem is that there is no such thing. Even vehicles made in the US rely on a complex supply chain that runs across borders and through multiple nations. The average car contains roughly 30,000 individual parts. Even cars produced domestically obtain 40–50 percent of their parts from abroad, according to Dan Ives, the global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, a financial services firm.

“The tariffs are a debacle of epic proportions for the auto industry and US consumers as the concept of a US made ca …

Read the full story at The Verge.