The announcement came as something of a delayed reveal. The Niro had already received a comprehensive facelift at the start of the year, but at the time, the company had not made clear which powertrains would carry over into the refreshed version.
The answer is now official: the updated Niro will continue exclusively as a hybrid. According to The Korea Herald, Jung Yoon-Kyung, a senior manager of Kia’s marketing team, confirmed the news directly: “The Niro EV, which had been produced until the previous model, has been discontinued. We plan to sell the remaining inventory available.”
The decision is not happening in a vacuum. It reflects a broader reconfiguration of Kia’s EV strategy, shaped by intensifying competition in the affordable electric vehicle segment, the arrival of newer models within Kia’s own lineup, and a turbulent tariff environment that has already forced the automaker’s hand on other models sold in the United States.
A Modest Pioneer That Struggled to Keep Up
The Niro EV first debuted in 2018, at a point in time when affordable electric cars were genuinely scarce on the market. The second generation arrived in 2021, bringing with it notable styling changes and a higher DC fast charging power input, an improvement that meaningfully shortened charging stops for drivers. For several years, the model occupied a legitimate niche: practical, accessible, and easy enough to recommend to buyers who didn’t want to spend big on an EV.
But the landscape shifted. By the time the discontinuation was confirmed, the Niro EV carried a starting price of roughly $40,000 and offered a 253-mile range, figures that, placed alongside the competition, had become increasingly difficult to defend.
According to Inside EVs, the entry-level Tesla Model 3, a larger car, starts from $36,990 and delivers 321 miles on a full charge. The new Chevrolet Bolt EV costs less than $30,000, and the refreshed Nissan Leaf lands at approximately the same price point. In that context, the Niro EV’s value proposition had quietly unraveled.
Undercut From the Outside, and From Within
The external pressure was significant, but internal competition played an equally important role in sealing the Niro EV’s fate. Kia introduced the EV3 and EV4, two models built on more advanced underpinnings and priced significantly below the electric Niro. Their arrival made it hard to justify keeping the older model alive, particularly when buyers comparing options within the same brand could find newer technology at a lower price point.
In South Korea, the refreshed Niro will be sold with a 1.6-liter hybrid powertrain producing a combined output of 141 horsepower, with the electric motor contributing 43 hp on its own. Whether the facelifted model will be sold in the United States remains unclear. What is clear is that once existing pre-facelift inventory is exhausted, the Niro EV will no longer be part of the picture.
Tariffs, Imports, and a Narrower American Lineup
The discontinuation leaves Kia’s U.S. electric vehicle offer notably thinner. After remaining inventory is cleared, the brand’s EV lineup stateside will consist of just two models: the EV6 and the EV9. The EV3 and EV4, which were originally planned for import into the American market, have been stalled by what Inside EVs describes as “the ongoing tariff situation and geopolitical environment,” preventing Kia from moving forward with its initial plans.
The EV6 GT, imported from South Korea, recently ran into the same wall, the automaker has already stopped selling it in the United States as a result. The EV9 seven-seat SUV and the standard EV6 trims are assembled domestically, which insulates them from the shifting import duty policies that have disrupted other models in the range. For now, those two vehicles represent what remains of Kia’s electric ambitions on American soil.
