These Two USA-Made BMWs Have Just Become More Expensive In China

It has begun. Some of the firstUS-made vehicles being exported to Chinaare experiencing price increases due to the additional costs of tariffs on US car imports. Reuters reports that the Spartanburg, South Carolina-built BMW X5 and X6 crossover SUVs, both very popular in the world's biggest auto market, have increased in price by 4 to 7 percent,effective starting today in China.

Interestingly, some industry analysts figured the expected price increases would have been more, but BMW is apparently willing to absorb most of the higher costs. How come? Because there's fierce competition among luxury brands in China and adding too much to the price tags is not in BMW's best interest.

The automaker has no choice but to do something in regards to a price increase ever since China began imposing new tariffs earlier this month on roughly $34 billion of US imports, which also includes soybeans and even lobsters. For US-built vehicles, China also added an extra 25 percent import levy starting July 6. This means China now has a 40 percent total import duty on all cars from the US. BMW doesn't appear to be too pleased by this latest development, with a spokeswoman telling Reuters: "BMW stands for free (trade) but can't stand still without taking actions to respond to the market changes."