May 13 (Reuters) - By Nick Carey, European Autos Correspondent

Greetings from London!

It didn’t take all that long to find out what impact President Donald Trump’s tariffs have had on U.S. car prices.

The average car price after discounts and promotions in April was up 2.5% versus March, the biggest increase since April 2020, when prices rose 2.7% during pandemic-related factory shutdowns.

Any number that comes close to the darkest days of COVID-19 does not look good.

Ford has already hiked prices on three Mexico-produced models effective May 2 because of border duties.

And with tariffs of 25% still in place for vehicle imports, more price increases are coming.

Which brings us to today’s Auto File…

• Nissan’s hits keep coming

• Bold targets for BYD

• Tariffs eat Honda profits

* Yet more cuts at Nissan

There has been no honeymoon at Nissan for new CEO Ivan Espinosa, who took the helm at the battered Japanese automaker just over a month ago.

After seeing its profit wiped out in the year just ended, Nissan said it would eliminate 11,000 more jobs and scale back production, in addition to the 9,000 job cuts the company announced back in November.

Nissan’s sales have cratered in the United States and China. Its merger talks earlier this year with Honda collapsed after Nissan insisted on a union of equals, a disaster that led to the ouster of former CEO Makoto Uchida.

Analysts say Nissan is paying the price for the years when former Chairman Carlos Ghosn focused too heavily on sales volume and heavy discounts to keep cars moving off lots. That has left it with an ageing line-up.

Like its rivals, Nissan is also being squeezed by U.S. tariffs and threatened by fast-rising Chinese EV makers in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

And like many of its rivals, Nissan pulled its earnings forecast for the current year.

Although Espinosa called the automaker’s results a “wake-up call,” it is going to take Nissan some time to dig out of this hole.

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* BYD aims high

China’s No. 1 automaker BYD has been telling investors since late last year that it wants half of its sales to come from outside China by 2030. You can read about it here.

This comes after a meteoric rise for BYD, which went from sales of around 420,000 cars in 2020 to 4.2 million in 2024.

That growth took BYD from relative obscurity to become the world’s No. 7 automaker by sales.

Around 90% of BYD’s sales were in China last year, so its 50% overseas sales target could put the company into contention with world No. 2 Volkswagen and No. 1 Toyota within a few years.

How those legacy automakers respond to the threat from BYD’s EVs and plug-in hybrids will be crucial.

While it has its finger on the pulse of Chinese consumer tastes, it will be interesting to see how BYD fares in competitive markets in Europe and beyond. And hitting that sales target could be tough given that like other Chinese automakers BYD is effectively shut out of the U.S. car market.

* Honda’s tariff pain

Unlike most major rivals who have chosen to pull their earnings forecasts for this year (see Nissan above), Honda said its profit will drop 59% because of uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs.

You can read about it here.

The Japanese automaker also said it has paused a plan to build an EV supply chain in Canada. Honda said that supply chain plan would be put on hold for "approximately two years" due to the current slowdown in EV demand.

The collapse of merger talks with Nissan earlier this year was also bad news for Honda. Tie-ups like that are seen as a survival tool for automakers to counter the threat from fast-moving Chinese EV companies.

“We will definitely look for new directions of growth through strategic partnerships," CEO Toshihiro Mibe said at a news conference.

* More Mercedes love for Alabama

Mercedes-Benz made it official this week when it said it will start producing its GLC SUV in the United States.

Ever since Trump began threatening his trade war, Mercedes had made it clear that it could move some production to its plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Earlier this month Mercedes had said it would bring a new model to Tuscaloosa starting in 2027.

Mercedes executives declined to say how much it would invest to build the GLC in Alabam.

The automaker also builds the GLC at its Bremen plant in Germany, which will make the car for the rest of the world while focusing Alabama production for U.S. consumers.

* Fast Laps

- Toyota expects profits to decline by a fifth this year as a weak U.S. dollar and Trump's tariffs weigh on the world's largest automaker.

- Volvo Cars will make production changes and cut 5% of the workforce at its Charleston, South Carolina plant, due to U.S. car import tariffs.

- China’s Geely offered to pay $2.2 billion to privatize its Zeekr unit just a year after the EV brand went public in the United States, saying it wanted to consolidate its business to fend off competition.

- Renault's limited-edition, electric remake of its iconic 1980 R5 Turbo petrol-engine hatchback drew 850 orders in its first week despite a 155,000 euro ($176,000) starting price.

- Stellantis will start producing the hybrid version of its Fiat 500 city car in November at the historic Mirafiori plant in Turin as part of plans to revive the Fiat brand in Europe and boost the automaker’s flagging production in Italy.

- Ford workers at two plants in Cologne, Germany, will go on strike on Wednesday over planned job cuts across the U.S. automaker's European operations.

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