It was 6 PM on April 2nd in Detroit, and the news just dropped—a sweeping new tariff announcement from Trump had thrown the automotive industry into chaos. In this episode, Jan Griffiths sits down with Sig Huber, Chief Commercial Officer at Elm Analytics, to understand what this moment means.
Sig, no stranger to disruption — from 9/11 to the Chrysler bankruptcy — doesn’t mince words: this isn’t a storm that will pass. This is a structural shift. One that reshapes global supply chains, tests the financial resilience of suppliers, and threatens the already fragile foundation of North American manufacturing. He calls it Liberation Day — a moment that might free the US from offshore dependencies but at a massive cost.
Together, they unpack how this announcement differs from past crises. This time, there’s no clear playbook. Unlike a chip shortage or a single-supplier failure, this change has tentacles across the globe — from engineering talent and manufacturing capacity to logistics infrastructure and even small businesses.
They talked about stacked tariffs and how they could make it nearly impossible for small—to mid-sized suppliers to survive. With supplier margins already in the red, the clock is ticking. Letters are flying from Tier 1s to OEMs. Some suppliers are refusing to ship without cost coverage. And production schedules are about to get very bumpy.
It’s a high-stakes moment for OEMs, too. While the UAW backs the move and underutilized plants offer some capacity, the timeline to bring new plants online spans 4–5 years. Trump might promise reshoring, but the reality is more complicated.
So, where do we go from here? Jan and Sig spotlight the one path forward: collaboration, trust, and transparency. Leaders must act now to understand their extended supply chains — not just their direct suppliers — and make the financial health of every tier a strategic priority.
This is the wake-up call. This is the moment when leadership—real leadership—will determine who survives and who doesn’t.
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