At least a dozen electric vehicle models have been discontinued, paused, or cancelled in the United States this year. The list includes some of the most recognisable names in the industry: Tesla’s Model S and Model X, Honda’s entire 0 Series, the Volvo EX30, the BMW i4 and iX, the Hyundai Kona Electric and Ioniq 6, the Kia Niro EV and EV6 GT, and the Acura RSX. Some are being replaced by newer models. Some are being killed by tariffs. Some are casualties of a strategic retreat from battery-electric vehicles toward hybrids. And two, Tesla’s oldest and most historically important cars, are being retired to make room for humanoid robots. The common thread is not that the technology failed. Every one of these vehicles works. The common thread is that the economics of selling an electric car in the United States in 2026 have become hostile enough that automakers are choosing not to.

The tariff casualties

The largest category of discontinued EVs consists of models imported from outside the United States that can no longer be sold profitably under the current tariff regime. The Hyundai Kona Electric, which started at approximately $33,000 and was one of the cheapest EVs on the American market, has been paused for the 2026 model year because Hyundai cannot justify shipping it from its Korean plants under a 25 per cent import tariff. The Hyundai Ioniq 6, also built in South Korea, has been dropped from the US lineup entirely, though the high-performance Ioniq 6 N variant may still arrive later this year. The Kia Niro EV, imported from Kia’s Hwaseong plant in South Korea, has been discontinued after the combination of tariffs and slowing EV demand made the model uneconomic for American dealerships. Kia has also delayed the GT trims of its EV6 and EV9 “until further notice” due to what the company called “changing market conditions.”

The Volvo EX30 is the clearest illustration of how tariff policy can kill a product. Chinese-made EVs face 100 per cent tariffs in the United States, so Volvo moved EX30 production from China to its Ghent plant in Belgium. Then the Trump administration imposed a 25 per cent tariff on all imported vehicles. The EX30, which was supposed to be a breakthrough affordable EV with a starting price under $35,000, now costs $40,345 in the US. Volvo sold 5,409 units in 2025. The company has confirmed the model will not return to the US market after the 2026 model year. The EX30 remains available in Canada, Mexico, and the rest of the world. Only the American market, where the tariff stack made the pricing unworkable, loses access to it.

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The strategic retreats

Honda’s cancellation of its 0 Series is the most expensive strategic retreat in the current cycle. In March, the company scrapped the Honda 0 Saloon, the Honda 0 SUV, and the Acura RSX, all three of which were planned for production at Honda’s EV hub in Marysville, Ohio. The cancellation triggered up to $15.7 billion in associated losses, the company’s first annual loss since it listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1957. Honda is pivoting to hybrids, which set an all-time sales record in February with 30,671 units. The company’s only remaining EV in the US is the Prologue, built in Mexico through a joint venture with General Motors. Honda had unveiled a production-ready version of the Acura RSX just six months before cancelling it.

Tesla’s sales challenges are different in nature but lead to the same outcome. The Model S and Model X, Tesla’s oldest and most expensive vehicles, accounted for less than 3 per cent of the company’s total deliveries in 2025. Elon Musk announced their retirement with the phrase “honourable discharge” and said the Fremont production lines that built them will be converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots, with a target of one million units per year. The last Model S and Model X rolled off the line in early April. The Model S started at $94,990 and the Model X at $99,990, prices that placed them in a segment where demand was shrinking. Musk framed the decision as a pivot toward autonomy. The market read it as Tesla choosing robots over sedans because the margin opportunity in humanoids, if it materialises, dwarfs the revenue from low-volume luxury EVs.

The platform transitions

BMW’s discontinuations are the most orderly. The i4 sedan and iX SUV are being phased out not because of tariffs or losses but because BMW is replacing them with next-generation vehicles built on its Neue Klasse platform. The i4, which reached 60 mph in 3.7 seconds and offered up to 333 miles of range, will end production by late 2026. Its replacement, the new i3 sedan, will be built at BMW’s Munich plant starting in August and is expected to offer up to 440 miles of range on the Neue Klasse architecture. The iX is being replaced by the iX3, which features BMW’s Gen6 eDrive technology with improved range, faster charging, and a more integrated electrical system. The iX will continue selling in Europe but has been discontinued in the US.

EVs are still projected to overtake combustion sales globally by the early 2030s, and BMW’s Neue Klasse programme is a bet that the next generation of electric vehicles will be substantially better and cheaper than the current one. The company’s discontinuations are planned obsolescence, not retreat. But they still remove vehicles from the market at a moment when the American EV selection is shrinking. A buyer who wanted a BMW i4 in December will not be able to buy one in January. The i3 replacement may be better, but it is not available yet.

The pattern

The combined effect of these discontinuations is that the number of electric vehicle models available to American consumers is declining at the same time that global EV production and sales are growing. EV startups have struggled for years to release a single car, and now established automakers are pulling models from the US market. The cause is not a single policy. It is the compounding effect of multiple policies: a 25 per cent tariff on imported vehicles, a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese-made EVs, the expiration of the $7,500 federal tax credit that made many EVs price-competitive with combustion alternatives, and the Section 301 investigations that create ongoing uncertainty about future trade conditions. Each policy individually might be absorbed. Together, they have created an environment where the only EVs that make economic sense in the US are the ones built in the US, and even some of those are being cancelled.

The models that survive are instructive. Hyundai’s Ioniq 5, built at its plant in Georgia, remains on sale. Kia’s standard EV6 and EV9 trims, produced at its West Point, Georgia, factory, remain on sale. Tesla’s Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck, all built in the United States, continue. Ford’s next-generation EV factory investments are positioning the company for a market where domestic production is the only viable path. The tariff regime is achieving exactly what it was designed to achieve: forcing automakers to build in America or exit the market. The cost is that American consumers have fewer electric vehicles to choose from at a moment when the technology is better, cheaper, and more varied than it has ever been. The vehicles being killed in 2026 are not bad cars. The Volvo EX30 was one of the best-reviewed small EVs in the world. The Honda 0 Saloon was supposed to redefine the company. The Tesla Model S changed the industry. They are casualties not of engineering failure but of trade policy, and the market they leave behind is smaller, more expensive, and more American than the one they entered.