Foley Attorneys Featured for Automotive Roundtable

Foley & Lardner LLP features in Bloomberg, Forbes, Automotive News, and Autoweek for a roundtable discussion hosted in the firm’s Detroit office on the state of the automotive industry.

Foley attorneys described present uncertainty around trade policy as likely to generate friction between suppliers and manufacturers.

Partner Vanessa Miller, chair of Foley’s national Automotive Team, characterized the relationship between manufacturers and suppliers as “parent-child,” where suppliers are instructed to take on a certain risk to win business. Given electric vehicle (EV) sales are already below expectations and now face a loss of tax credits, Miller noted that the “parents” in the relationship will have to become a lot more supportive.

“The problem comes in when you have suppliers that are investing tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in new equipment, new lines, entire manufacturing facilities that are now sitting idle,” Miller said, adding that manufacturers “need their suppliers to stay solvent and healthy.”

Partner Ann Marie Uetz described consumer uncertainty over EVs as “transition fatigue.”

“There’s a there’s a tug and pull with EV stations going up, are they not going up? Are we going to get a tax credit? Is the administration going to change that?” Uetz explained, highlighting that if consumers lack confidence to make investments in EVs, the negative impact affects suppliers. She pointed out similarities between today’s environment and the industry under the pandemic, when suppliers asked automakers for cost relief as vehicle production declined and costs increases were handed down to consumers in the form of increased vehicle prices.

“The same thing will happen with respect to tariffs,” Uetz said, adding that it comes down to “who’s going to pay for it and who can weather the storm.”

Partner Nicholas Ellis detailed the multiplicative effect of tariffs on vehicles as components can be produced by several suppliers and cross numerous borders ahead of final vehicle assembly.

“Stacking is not even perhaps the right term for it. It’s exponential, because it just increases the cost of every step along the way,” Ellis added.

The attorneys’ insights from the roundtable discussion also appeared across Financial Post, GM Authority, Inside EVs, Yahoo! Finance, and Yahoo! Autos.

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