Honda scrapped its three US-built EVs before launch to stop $7B of losses

On 12 March 2026 Honda announced it was cancelling the Honda 0 SUV, Honda 0 sedan and the electric Acura RSX — the three EVs it had revealed at CES the previous year in 'nearly production' state — as it projected heavy losses for the financial year of $5.1 billion to $7 billion (¥820 billion to ¥1.12 trillion).

The cancellation stranded visible investment: Honda had retooled its Ohio plants, adding a massive die-cast operation at the Anna Engine Plant to make EV battery packs and a new robot-filled section at Marysville Auto Plant ready to build the three EVs alongside Accords and Integras.

Honda blamed three forces: the trade war's tariffs eating into the profitability of cars it imports into the US; the US government's decision to stop enforcing emissions and fuel-economy standards on the industry; and China, where it admitted it could not match newer EV makers' short development cycles and software-defined-vehicle strengths including ADAS, 'resulting in a decline in competitiveness'. Weak US EV demand after the end of the federal clean-vehicle tax credit meant launching the cars 'would simply compound Honda's losses'.

Instead, Honda said it would beef up its hybrid offerings in the US and greenlight future EVs only where demand and profitability could be met, while senior executives took voluntary pay cuts of 20–30 percent for three months.

Tariffs undermined the imported-vehicle profits that were meant to fund the EV transition.

The US government stopped enforcing the emissions and fuel-economy rules the EVs were built to satisfy.

Honda's software-defined-vehicle development could not keep pace with Chinese EV makers on price or features.

US EV demand weakened after the federal clean-vehicle tax credit ended, removing the launch market.

An EV roadmap sized for one regulatory world can be stranded by another — capex committed before policy and software competition shift leaves no good options.

As of March 2026 Honda was pivoting US production plans toward hybrids, with the Ohio plants' new capability redirected and any future EVs conditional on demand and profitability.