Car prices crept upward in April as tariffs took effect and global automakers braced for billions of dollars in potential extra costs.

Cox Automotive’s first batch of Kelley Blue Book vehicle price data since the Trump administration’s auto tariffs took effect showed that the average transaction price for a new vehicle increased 2.5 percent last month. That’s compared to a typical increase of 1.1 percent for April over the past decade, according to Cox executive analyst Erin Keating.

In early April the Trump administration imposed tariffs of 25 percent on imported autos. The White House later moved to soften the blow by ensuring that auto tariffs don’t “stack” on other duties applying to inputs such as steel and aluminum, but even those vehicles assembled in the United States will face higher component costs, analysts say.

Automakers also saw a surge of demand in the first three months of the year, as many consumers sought to get ahead of impending tariffs. That temporary buying frenzy is one factor that has pushed car prices upward every week since the auto tariffs were announced in March, Cox Automotive analyst Jonathan Smoke said earlier this month at an industry conference. Even vehicles that aren’t imported are becoming more expensive, he said.

“This is simply the market reacting,” Smoke said.

Consumer price index data released Tuesday showed no increase in its new vehicle segment from March to April, with used car prices actually decreasing slightly. But the Cox Automotive data also accounts for price incentives, however, and tends to lead the CPI data by several weeks.

Automakers so far have left their manufacturer-recommended prices mostly unchanged, Keating and Smoke said, but some have shifted their price incentives in ways that effectively increase what buyers pay at the dealership. Manufacturers tend to make midyear adjustments to their prices over the summer months, with more price increases expected.

“We know tariffs are inflationary, it’s just a matter of what the increases look like,” Keating said in an interview.

Ford dealerships have been told that several models will see price increases, the company confirmed Thursday. That includes a $600 increase for certain Ford Bronco SUVs, $700 for some Maverick hybrid pickup models, or as high as $1,500 or $2,000 for some models of the electric Mustang Mach-E, Ford spokesman Said Deep said in an email.

Deep said the price increases were part of the company’s normal midyear pricing actions combined with the impact of tariffs.

“We have NOT passed on the full cost of tariffs to our customers,” Deep said in an email to The Washington Post. “Our approach throughout this evolving situation continues to be doing what’s right for our customers — and our business.”

News of the Ford hikes was first reported by Reuters.

Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iseecars.com, said it’s impossible for any automaker to know exactly how much the new tariffs will cost them, complicating the picture for consumers.

“If tariffs exist on imported vehicles that didn’t exist before, higher prices are pretty much guaranteed,” Brauer said.

Tariff costs are already showing up in financial earnings reported by global automakers in recent days. Three of Japan’s largest automakers said they expect U.S. tariffs to cost them billions of dollars.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, forecast last week that tariffs in the U.S. will have cost it about $1.2 billion in April and May alone.

Honda also projected a sharp financial blowback from the trade war, contributing to an expected 70 percent reduction in profit for its fiscal year that started April 1. It expects U.S. tariffs to cost it around $4.4 billion for the year.

Honda executives said they are looking for ways to limit the financial impact of tariffs, including by shifting their supply chains. “If the tariff measures are to be in place for a long time, we will have to increase production capacity in the United States,” Honda chief executive Toshihiro Mibe said Tuesday.

Nissan unveiled sweeping cost cuts Tuesday, including another 11,000 layoffs worldwide on top of 9,000 previously announced cuts. It reported an annual net loss of about $4.5 billion and declined to provide a forecast for the coming year due to “uncertainty from potential impact of the tariff.”

In a financial report Tuesday, Nissan said it expects business to be a challenge because of “intense competition, forex [foreign exchange] and inflationary pressure.”