Trump Tariffs Drive Google To Rethink Pixel Smartphone Production Strategy

Summary: Google is forced to rethink Pixel smartphone production strategy due to Trump tariffs. The company could ramp up production in India to avoid Vietnam tariffs. The talks are currently ongoing with Google’s manufacturing partners in the country.

Vietnam is currently the main manufacturing base for Pixel smartphones. Google is also manufacturing devices in India, though, since the Pixel 8. Thanks to Trump’s tariffs, however, Google seems to be rethinking things.

Google is looking to ramp up Pixel smartphone production in India, mainly due to tariffs

Based on a new report, Google is in talks with local contract manufacturers in India, Dixon Technologies and Foxconn, to shift some of the global production of Pixel smartphones from Vietnam to India.

That would help Google lower tariffs for devices going to the US market, basically. The information comes from two industry executives who talked to the Economic Times.

Google will also be looking to localize some components in India. That goes for enclosures, chargers, fingerprint scanners, and batteries.

Trump’s tariffs are notably higher for Vietnam than for India

How much of a difference would this make for Google? Well, based on an earlier announcement, Trump will impose a 46% tariff on imports from Vietnam and a 26% tariff on imports from India. So that’s quite a difference if Google ends up pulling devices from India as opposed to Vietnam.

Considering how many tariff changes we’ve seen lately, things could change further. The Trump Administration keeps changing the game plan, so who knows what will happen moving forward.

Google is manufacturing over 40,000 Pixel phones a month in India, at the moment

In case you’re wondering, Dixon Technologies and Foxconn are currently producing 43,000-45,000 Pixel smartphones in India, a month. Out of those numbers, 65-70% of devices are made by Dixon Technologies.

We’re not sure how much Google plans to change things, but the goal is to ramp up production in India. Google’s Pixel smartphones are becoming more and more popular in the US, so Google doesn’t want to lose the momentum. Last-gen models of Pixels doubled Google’s market share from 7% to 14%… in the US.