President Donald Trump’s plan tariff Foreign goods are designed to convince foreign manufacturers to produce their goods at their U.S. factories and hire Americans.

In a recent interview with the conservative network Newsmax, Trump said the work has achieved fruitful results.

“We are building car plants with something we’ve never seen like that, and they’ll rise quickly,” Trump said on March 26.

When asked about the evidence, the White House cited recent announcements of Hyundai, Stelantis and Honda.

But, automotive industry experts say Trump exaggerated. In most cases, these announcements represent investment redistribution of existing facilities rather than newly built plants. They may or may not achieve.

Dimitry Anastakis, professor of business history at the University of Toronto and author of the 2024 North American Automotive Industry, said it was too early for the president to be praised for plant expansion during his brief tenure in the office. “The plants were a few years ahead of time,” he said.

We found no data to confirm that the recent announcements amounted to record levels of investment in automobile manufacturing.

Which automakers have recently announced new investments?

Three foreign automakers recently said they would invest heavily in U.S. production.

modern: In February, the South Korean automaker announced that it would increase its production capacity from 300,000 to 500,000 units per year in Metaplant, Georgia, while producing electric and hybrid vehicles. It also announced that it will increase output at its Alabama plant, which currently produces 356,100 vehicles per year.

In March, Hyundai announced at a White House event that it is launching approximately $2.1 billion in U.S. investments, including a $5.8 billion steel plant in Louisiana to provide materials for the company’s electric vehicles.

Hyundai Motor CEO Jose Munoz told Axios that the company “navigated tariffs are the best way to increase localization”.

Honda: Reuters’ March, based on an unnamed source, Japanese automakers will produce their next-generation folk hybrids in Indiana instead of Mexico.

Honda initially plans to start producing the next generation of citizens in Guanajuato, Mexico, from November 2027. But now, it plans to build a new Civic from an existing existing plant in Greensburg, Indiana, in May 2028, with an expected annual output of 210,000.

constellation: In late January, the Dutch company, which owns Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat and other auto brands, announced it would invest $5 billion in the U.S., including the reopening of a rally plant in Belvedel, Illinois, which once made jeeps at a Jeep Cherokee store and has closed the company since February 2023.

Why experts say be cautious

A closer look at the announcements of the three companies highlights the differences in Trump’s framework.

First, they are announcements of plans to start a few years from now, meaning companies can modify plans before they can implement them.

Second, as Trump said, none of these moves involve “car plants being built”, but rather in the production of existing plants or reopening closed plants. Hyundai’s planned Louisiana steel plant will provide materials for electric vehicles.

Greig Mordue, a professor of manufacturing policy at McMaster University, said companies such as Hyundai, Honda and Strattis may be preparing to accelerate the decision to roll out to fit the political reality.

“They will look at models that will end at the natural cycle, which happens in a time interval of about five years and are ready to announce “investment” to continue to use new versions of the model in new versions of these factories,” Mordue said. “These launches can be positioned as ‘winning’.”

Automotive manufacturing investment is boosting before Trump

We have not found any long-term data that puts the scope of the three most recent automaker announcements in a historical context, but there have been some Renaissances in new auto manufacturing investments over the past few years, most of which are in electric vehicles.

From 2000 to the end of September 2024, the company announced investment in the electric vehicle manufacturing industry and about 240,000 jobs to create approximately $208.8 billion, according to Atlas Public Policy, a research and consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

Experts say a major factor in this development is the two laws signed by President Joe Biden Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation reduction methodwhich provides federal incentives to double the U.S. manufacturing base.

The group said more than half of the investment has been announced since Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

“It’s obvious that this is part of the ongoing multi-year trend,” said Atlas founder Nick Nigro.

Since these laws were passed, other types of manufacturing have also seen significant growth. According to the Ministry of Finance, overall manufacturing construction expenditures that have been adjusted for inflation have doubled since the end of 2021.

The Trump White House downplayed the value of investment in the Biden-era era, noting that the Financial Times analysis found that the total of $84.4 billion has been suspended or delayed by the Inflation Rate Reduction Act and another bill signed by Biden, the CHIPS and Science Act, totaled $84.4 billion.

The White House also cited news reports about automakers that abandoned their electric car targets in 2024, including Volvo, Ford and Mercedes-Benz.

Nevertheless, some of the uncertainty plaguing past planned investments could also affect announcements in recent weeks. It may take years to build factories, or even increase production at existing ones, and it remains to be seen whether these plans will be realized.