The Section 232 auto parts tariff inclusion window closed at 11:59 PM ET on April 14, 2026. Petitions submitted during the April 1–14 window now head to the International Trade Administration for a 60-day review. Whatever parts manufacturers and domestic producers lobbied to add to the 25% tariff scope — hood assemblies, fenders, bumpers, door panels — will be publicly posted on Regulations.gov within weeks. If approved, those parts get added to the tariff list. If you run a fleet where body damage repairs are a line item, this matters.
What's Already in Scope — and What Isn't
The Section 232 auto parts tariffs took effect in May 2025 covering engines, transmissions, powertrain components, and electrical systems, per the U.S. Department of Commerce proclamation. That scope maps to the heavy mechanical repairs you see on delivery vans between 60,000 and 120,000 miles — turbochargers, EGR valves, fuel injectors, control arms, DPF systems. Your vendor invoices for those events have already moved.
What's currently exempt is the collision tier. Hoods, fenders, bumpers, quarter panels, and door skins are largely outside the current 25% tariff scope, according to the Automotive Body Parts Association. That exemption has given operators some margin cushion when handling the low-severity body damage that accumulates constantly on high-cycle delivery vans — dock strikes, curb clips, pedestrian infrastructure contact, overnight lot incidents.
That exemption is now under petition. The Commerce Department opened the quarterly inclusions process in January 2026, with windows in April, July, and October following, per a March 24 Federal Register notice. The April window was the second one. Petitioners — U.S. parts producers seeking domestic competitive protection — filed through April 14. ITA now reviews each submission within 60 days.
Why Collision Parts Matter for Fleet Operators
Delivery van body damage isn't the exception. On high-stop routes averaging 180–200 stops per day, surface contact with property is a recurring operating reality. The 2026 Automotive Fleet operating cost survey identifies non-mechanical body repair as one of the most undertracked cost categories in fleet management, precisely because individual events are modest while aggregate annual spend is material.
The parts that take damage most frequently — front and rear bumper covers, fenders, hood assemblies — are also the parts most likely to be import-sourced. The Automotive Body Parts Association estimates that 44% of collision parts sold in the U.S. originate from foreign manufacturers, most commonly in Taiwan and China. For bumper covers and hoods specifically, import exposure is higher, given that OEM and quality aftermarket options for commercial van platforms are concentrated in Asian manufacturing.
A 25% tariff on those parts would pass through to repair invoices in the same way the mechanical parts tariff did in mid-2025. The difference is category: mechanical parts hit 60K+ mile events. Collision parts hit every week of operations for an active fleet.
What the Cost Math Looks Like
These are current baseline estimates for common collision repair parts on full-size delivery van platforms (Sprinter, Transit, ProMaster), based on OEM and quality aftermarket pricing benchmarks from Mitchell International's 2026 parts pricing database. The tariff-adjusted column applies the 25% duty to parts cost only; labor is unaffected.
| Component | Current parts cost | +25% tariff scenario | Per-incident increase | |---|---|---|---| | Front bumper cover (OEM) | $380–$520 | $475–$650 | $95–$130 | | Hood assembly (OEM) | $620–$950 | $775–$1,188 | $155–$238 | | Rear bumper cover (OEM) | $310–$480 | $388–$600 | $78–$120 | | Front fender (OEM) | $480–$780 | $600–$975 | $120–$195 | | Door skin / outer panel | $550–$820 | $688–$1,025 | $138–$205 |
These are parts-only figures. Labor adds $600–$1,200 per incident depending on damage severity and market. The tariff doesn't affect labor. But parts are where the exposure lives for import-sourced components.
For a 30-van fleet running one minor body event per vehicle per quarter — a conservative estimate for urban and suburban high-stop routes — the annual repair exposure on these components alone runs $15,000–$28,000 in parts. A 25% tariff increase on that number is $3,750–$7,000 per year in added cost before any other metric moves.
See what your fleet's current repair costs are actually running →
Timeline to Watch
After the April window closed, ITA posts accepted submissions publicly on Regulations.gov for a 14-day comment period, according to the Commerce Department's inclusion process rules. ITA then has 60 days from receipt of each petition to issue a determination. If Commerce approves inclusions from the April window, new tariff additions could take effect as early as July 2026.
The July and October 2026 windows are still ahead. Parts producers who didn't petition this window can file in July. There is currently no established mechanism to remove parts from the tariff scope once added, per the Sobel Network's analysis of the inclusions process. What goes in stays in.
What Operators Can Do Now
You can't stop the tariff. You can adjust how you track and absorb the exposure.
First, identify your current body repair vendor structure. If you're sourcing parts through a dealership on OEM billing, you're paying MSRP on parts that will move with tariff increases. Independent collision shops often have flexibility to source quality aftermarket alternatives. Not all aftermarket parts are import-dependent — domestic production exists for some platforms. Knowing your vendor's sourcing before costs move gives you leverage to renegotiate.
Second, benchmark your current collision repair spend per vehicle now. Most fleets don't track this separately from general maintenance. Running a van-level body repair log for Q2 2026 gives you a clean baseline against which to measure any July tariff impact.
Third, the petitions being reviewed in the next 60 days aren't public yet — but the July 2026 window submissions will be posted. Watch the ITA's Regulations.gov postings and the ABPA's industry alerts for early signal on which parts are actually targeted.
The mechanical parts tariff was visible for months before it hit invoices. Operators who caught that signal early adjusted their hold/repair decisions before costs moved. The same opportunity exists now for the collision tier.
Sources: U.S. Department of Commerce Section 232 proclamation (automobile parts, effective May 2025); Federal Register Vol. 91, No. 56 (March 24, 2026) — Notice of Opening of Inclusions Window; KPMG Tax News Flash, March 2026 — BIS April 2026 inclusions window announcement; Automotive Body Parts Association, December 2025 — inclusions process overview; Autobody News — "Tariff Expansion Could Hit 44% of Collision Parts Sold in U.S."; Sobel Network Shipping, 2026 — Section 232 auto parts analysis; Mitchell International 2026 parts pricing database (parts cost benchmarks); White & Case LLP, January 2026 — Commerce Department inclusions process; Automotive Fleet 2026 operating cost survey