- Kia is delaying the 2026 Kia EV6 GT in the U.S. “until further notice.”
- The hot EV is already gone from the automaker’s American online configurator.
- The rest of the Kia EV6 lineup remains unaffected.
The 2026 Kia EV6 GT has been “delayed until further notice” in the United States, a Kia spokesperson told Road & Track. The Korean automaker’s hottest electric car stateside is one of the best performance-oriented battery-powered vehicles out there, and it’s sad to see it go on hiatus, but there’s a good reason behind the company’s decision.
Sales of the Kia EV6 as a whole have been rough, to say the least, after the $7,500 federal tax credit went out the window late last year. In this year’s first two months, Kia sold just 1,140 EV6s in the U.S., less than half compared to the same period last year.
Photo by: InsideEVs
The company doesn’t break out individual numbers for each trim, but it’s safe to assume that the EV6 GT, which was the most expensive version, had the lowest share of all the trims. What’s more, the sporty hatchback/crossover EV was imported from South Korea, subjecting it to a 15% tariff.
By comparison, all the other EV6 trims, which are assembled in West Point, Georgia, are unaffected by the Trump Administration’s import tariffs and are still on sale in the U.S.
“Offering tremendous value and exhilarating performance to customers across Kia’s full range of vehicles is paramount, but due to changing market conditions, the 2026 EV6 GT will be delayed until further notice,” Kia told Road & Track. “This delay does not impact the availability of other trims in the EV6 lineup, which are proudly assembled in our world-class facility in West Point, Georgia.”
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Source: Kia
The 2025 Kia EV6 GT debuted alongside the rest of the lineup at last year’s LA Auto Show with a $65,345 MSRP. It featured a new face, an updated interior with a new infotainment system, a bigger high-voltage battery, and a Tesla-style NACS charging port. With an 84-kilowatt-hour pack under the floor and a pair of electric motors putting out up to 641 horsepower with Launch Mode enabled, the 2025 EV6 GT was a hoot to drive, accelerating from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.4 seconds and on to a top speed of 161 mph.
But sheer acceleration wasn’t its only strength. The suspension tuning was spot on, and the Virtual Gear Shifts made it feel like you were in a virtual racing simulator. It was also fully loaded with equipment.
All this being said, there’s some more bad news. If you were planning on getting a new 2025 Kia EV6 GT, it’s no longer listed on the automaker’s American website, though there might be some in dealers’ inventory. The EV3 compact electric hatchback and its sedan sibling, the EV4, have also been delayed until further notice in the U.S.
The EV6 GT joins a growing list of delayed and canceled electric cars in the U.S. Just recently, Hyundai said it would only sell the high-performance Ioniq 6 N here. The Ford F-150 Lightning, America’s best-selling electric truck, went the way of the dodo last year, and Ram pulled the plug on the electric 1500 truck before it had a chance to go on sale.
