Leadership1 publisher3 min readPublished
This year's US EV cancellations cluster on Korean-built imports
US EV deliveries have fallen for three straight quarters since the $7,500 credit lapsed in September 2025. Most of the nameplates dropped this year were assembled outside the US, and each quarterly decline is smaller than the last.
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What happened
- Business Insider reports that fewer shoppers have chosen a battery-powered car since September 2025, when the federal $7,500 tax credit for US-made EVs ended.
- Kia's Niro EV, imported from the Hwaseong plant in South Korea and exposed to US automotive tariffs, has been discontinued in the US, according to InsideEVs.
- Tesla will end Model X production in the second quarter of 2026 amid soft demand, and Elon Musk has said the $94,990 Model S is due for what he called an honorable discharge.
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Why it matters
- exposure The contracts at risk are the ones written on US volume for Korean-built trims. Hyundai keeps the Ioniq 6 platform and keeps selling it in Canada while taking the US allocation to zero.
- decision Two of the pauses point at the same model year: the ID. Buzz until 2027 and a possible Kona Electric return for 2027. Capacity and re-spec commitments for that year are being priced now against a demand curve with three quarters of post-credit history behind it.
- contradiction Goldstein describes replacements that are cheaper and longer-range, while the only US addition Hyundai has described is the pricier Ioniq 6 N. Until an automaker names an affordable replacement, the retooling case rests on one analyst's account of intent.
- precedent Tesla is cutting at $99,990, so the standard being applied is volume against plan at any price point.
Three of the models pulled from the US market this year came off Korean assembly lines. Hyundai confirmed to Business Insider that it will stop selling the Korean-built standard Ioniq 6 here [13]. It said in February that it would not ship the 2026 Kona Electric from its Korean plants to US dealerships [22]. Kia's Niro EV, discontinued in the US according to InsideEVs, was imported from the Hwaseong plant in South Korea and exposed to ongoing US automotive tariffs [25][26]. The cars Hyundai pointed buyers toward are built here. "In the meantime, 2025 Ioniq 6 sedans continue to be available at dealers alongside our award-winning, US-assembled Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 SUVs," the company said [20].
The volume explains why the sedan went first. Hyundai said it sold 229 Ioniq 6 units in February, a pace of about 2,700 a year if it held [14][16]. The Ioniq 5 delivered 5,002 units in May, up 16% from a year earlier [15]. "Sedan sales have declined a lot over the past decade, and the Ioniq 6 is no exception," Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at Telemetry, told Business Insider [17]. "Without enough sales to justify US production, the numbers just don't add up for Hyundai" [18].
The market these calls were made in is still contracting, by less each quarter. Cox Automotive data put US EV deliveries down 36% in the fourth quarter of 2025, 27% in the first quarter of 2026 and 20.5% in the second [4][3][2]. The year-over-year gap narrowed by nine points, then by 6.5 [6]. It takes more than three data points to call a floor. The comparisons get easier from the fourth quarter of 2026, when the base period is itself a quarter with no credit in it [33].
Tesla's two cuts sit outside the import pattern. Elon Musk says the $94,990 Model S is headed for an "honorable discharge" after years of sliding sales [29]. The Model X, which starts at $99,990, ends production in the second quarter of 2026 amid soft demand [30][31]. That is about three times the roughly $33,000 starting price of the Kona Electric, one of the cheapest EVs on the US market in 2025 [24][32].
Morningstar's Seth Goldstein reads the cuts as routine retooling. "It's a part of many legacy automakers retooling their EV strategies," he told Business Insider [11]. "A lot of automakers are going back to the drawing board. They're looking to discontinue unprofitable EVs and replace them with more affordable, long-range EVs" [12]. Goldstein named no replacement models. The one US addition Hyundai has described is a limited import of the high-performance Ioniq 6 N, a pricier variant with track-focused upgrades [19].
Volkswagen and Hyundai both named years. Volkswagen paused the ID. Buzz until 2027 [10], and Hyundai says the Kona Electric could return for the 2027 model year [23]. The Ioniq 6 will still ship to Canadian dealerships [21]. Ford ended production of the F-150 Lightning and Nissan axed the Ariya by the end of 2025 [8][9]. Kia has not responded to Business Insider's request for comment [28].
What to watch
- Whether the fourth quarter of 2026, the first period measured against a quarter that had no $7,500 credit in it, shows a decline at all.
- Whether any automaker names the cheaper, longer-range replacement models Morningstar's Seth Goldstein described.
- Whether Hyundai confirms the Kona Electric for the 2027 model year or lets the pause run past it.