Sometimes electric vehicles ‘best’ their competition in unexpected ways. This year the electric vehicle (EV) could be a nominal winner in the tariff wars. That’s because EVs have considerably fewer parts and components than gasoline cars. The drive train in an electric vehicle might have only about 20 parts, compared to more than 2000 in a comparable gasoline one. Electric vehicles simplify things, when it comes to the moving parts. That’s useful, since there are rumblings of yet an additional tariff for auto parts and supplies.
But, there’s an older, more curious tariff to pay attention to. It helps to explain why you see a lot of Ford F150s, Toyota Tundra trucks on the road today, and practically no Mercedes X class pickups. There’s talk of a new electric pick-up truck that might be built in 2027, and if so, it will be sourced domestically and have a chicken in its heritage.
Chicken Anyone?
One of the notable and long-lasting tariffs, humorously dubbed the Chicken Tax, was imposed in 1964 by then President Johnson. It still stands on the books, in this era of new Trump imposed tariffs. Back then, the idea was to put pressure on Europe to rescind excessive charges on agricultural products, specifically chicken. At one time imported chicken was a luxury good, but when France and other countries got into the henhouse (so to speak), they raised import fees on shipments from the U.S. To retaliate, the U.S. decided to single out larger manufactured goods, and set a 25% tariff on European made commercial vehicles and light trucks. At that time, the Volkswagen Type 2s, was a favorite commercial van and pickup but it was among those singled out by the tariff. Later, Volkswagen ultimately shifted a lot of the van production to South America. In an interesting policy twist, US automakers adjusted to the tariff and lobbied to keep it. They found a core market in making larger trucks and SUVs, and, later on, these were made exempt from lighter vehicles’ miles-per-gallon improvements.
When it comes to tariffs- companies find workarounds. In what’s known as “tariff engineering” Ford figured out how to import Transit trucks from Turkey that were fitted out as passenger vehicles by stripping the rear seats. Mercedes disassembled fully completed vehicles and reassembled them in South Carolina. Years later, NAFTA provided the ultimate work-around with light duty trucks made for the U.S. market in Canada or Mexico.
New Chicken Dish:
But light-duty trucks are back in the news! In April (2025) there was a pre-announcement from Amazon owner, Jeff Bezos, about ‘Slate’, a light-duty electric truck he is spearheading. Appropriately referred to as the Blank Slate, it is expected to be assembled in Indiana and sell for around $25,000. Add-ons and accessories will boost the base price, perhaps significantly. Inflation adjusted though, it’s reminiscent of of the original Model T vehicle. Recall that the Model T only came in black (not gray) and adjusted for inflation, it sold for about $27,389.
The Slate could be a useful addition to the electric vehicle market, since there are thousands of public and private fleets that are required to cut their emissions to meet 2030 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fuel requirements. Electric pick-up trucks on the market today, like the Chevy Silverado and the Ford 150 Lightening are super-sized in both weight and price range. A $25,000 vehicle comes close to the price point and work duty that fleet managers can justify.
Geography Speaks:
Perhaps the biggest showdown for the Slate, and other smaller electric vehicles- will be where, geographically speaking, their giant battery packs are made. If the battery packs are made in China, they will be subject to huge tariffs, present policies holding. But if they are assembled in the U.S., there might be ways of building them using domestically sourcing lithium and recycled components.
Perhaps the only thing clear at this point is that, thanks to chicken taxes, the Slate will not have competition from the likes of Mercedes or BMW. The chickens will have cleared the road for a small, domestic, electric vehicle pickup.