- The average transaction price for a new car reached $48,699 in April.
- Figure was up 2.5% up compared with March, double usual April rise.
- Increase happened at the same time Trump announced new auto tariffs.
President Trump’s constantly shifting tariff policy has introduced a huge amount of uncertainty into the market for automakers, dealers and consumers. But there’s one thing we can now be certain of and it’s that people are paying more for their vehicles since the tariffs were announced.
New data from Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book shows the average transaction price (ATP) for new vehicles climbed by 2.5 percent to $48,699 in April from March’s figure. KBB has been tracking data for years and would normally only expect a 1.1 percent ATP rise between the third and fourth months of the year.
Related: Used Car Prices Just Got Pricier And It’s Not Just Supply That’s To Blame
ATPs are a much more accurate reflection than MSRPs of what Americans are paying for their new cars and the only time the figures have recorded a bigger rise in April in recent memory was in 2020. That was when the pandemic and chip shortages were causing carnage with car production and pushed prices up rapidly. That year, April recorded a 2.7 percent rise.
Few automakers raised prices in April (though some, like Ford and its Mexico-built Maverick, have done in May), but buyers concerned about fixing their new car deal ahead of potential price rises rushed to dealers, increased the number of cars being sold. Cox analysts say this swell of demand, plus a drop in sales incentives to 6.7 percent of ATP – their lowest point in over a year – helped push transaction prices north.
KBB’s 2.7 percent rise covers all new vehicles, but the picture looks very different when you throw the spotlight on electric cars. The ATP for EV was only 0.2 percent higher in April than in March, and it’s no coincidence that sales of battery-powered vehicles dropped nearly 6 percent in April. Throwing the spotlight on subcompact cars flips things the other way: their ATP was up 10.7 percent in April and 8.3 percent year over year.
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*KBB average transaction prices do not include applied consumer incentives
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