I’m eagerly awaiting the death of the sedan

One of the highlights of the 2025 New York International Auto Show was the Kia EV4, currently due to reach the US in early 2026. It was notable for a few reasons: unusual styling, dual 12.3-inch touchscreens, and up to 330 miles (531 kilometers) of range if you pay for the Wind trim. It even has a new voice assistant able to refine its responses and command recognition, so hopefully, it won’t accidentally trigger itself when you’re jamming out to

Spotify
. Mind you, Apple says the same thing about

Siri
.

It should — by all rights — be a solid

electric car
for the people who want one, but it also made me realize something — I have absolutely zero interest in sedans anymore, no matter how well-built or futuristic they are. Indeed, the format seems to be on its way out, and for once I’m actually supportive of the way the world is going, as long as affordable options stick around too.

Why sedans should disappear

A trend already in progress

Honda

When I was growing up in Canada (and visiting the US) during the ’80s and ’90s, sedans were everywhere. In retrospect, they were the “default” car for North America — you only bought something else to accommodate niche demands. If you wanted ample cargo space, you bought a van, a truck, or a station wagon; if you wanted to save money, you bought a compact hatchback. Even a lot of high school kids ended up getting used sedans as starter vehicles.

You can still buy new sedans, but in North America they’ve been eclipsed in popularity by SUVs, trucks, and crossovers. While it’s difficult to track down up-to-the-minute data, in 2019, SUVs accounted for 47.7% of US sales (per a New York Times report) versus just 22.1% for sedans. Even some sports car brands have added SUVs to their lineups. I see Porsche Cayennes on the road all the time — no matter that buying an SUV for performance is akin to buying a Bowie knife to chop up dinner vegetables.

A sedan makes sense if you’re a homeowner who’s mostly traveling back and forth to work, occasionally shuttling kids around, taking vacations, or having a night out. But if you’re regularly moving from apartment to apartment — like many millennials and Gen Zers — a sedan can’t fit that many boxes, let alone large pieces of furniture. And even once you’ve settled into a house, there’s a good chance you’ll be going on weekend runs to stores like Home Depot, Best Buy, or IKEA. Few things are more irritating than carting a TV or stack of lumber out to your car only to realize it won’t fit.

Children exacerbate the situation. My wife and I only have one child, but like many people these days, we don’t have convenient relatives or babysitters nearby. Our son and his booster seat have to come along with us on many errands, shrinking the amount of cargo space even further. In that sense, I really can’t blame parents for buying full-sized SUVs, even if most of them don’t need a Nissan Armada or Chevy Tahoe to take their kids to judo lessons.

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The road ahead

Adapting form factors for the 2020s

Chevrolet

When my wife and I bought a new car in 2022, we chose the Hyundai Venue, which is a compact crossover SUV. It’s the ideal format for us — more cargo space than a sedan, but still small enough to be affordable and fit in a single-car garage. We still run into space problems sometimes, but it’s usually nothing some creative seat manipulation can’t fix. I can’t imagine trying to do the same things with my old Buick Regal.

In that regard, I feel that crossovers and other small SUVs are rightfully taking over, especially since they allow enough space for larger batteries on EV models. The Chevy Equinox EV (above) is impressive to me as something under $34,000 with a 319-mile (513-kilometer) range. I’d love to see 300-mile ranges on compact hatchbacks, too, but the tech probably won’t be there until solid-state batteries arrive around 2030.

There are some aspects of this trajectory I don’t like. Many SUVs are still unnecessarily huge, blocking lanes and sightlines in traffic, and of course posing a more serious threat if they hit something. The same can also be said of many trucks, which often don’t even carry cargo. In places like Alberta and Texas, it seems like a lot of people get one just to fit in with the local cowboy culture, and/or to feel tough on the streets.

Will sedans disappear completely? I doubt it, at least until robotaxis and other fully self-driving cars are an omnipresent reality. They do serve a purpose. But both the positive and negative trends in place seem to be pressing hard, and I’d rather things skew in the direction of practicality than pretend we’re all well-off professionals who get everything big and heavy delivered by white-glove services.

Related

Why solid-state batteries will revolutionize EVs – and why we’re still waiting

They’re on the horizon, but there’s still some distance to go.

The affordability issue

One final thought

Honda

I do have one other concern, and that’s pricing trends. Even compact crossovers are sometimes more expensive than sedans, so there’s the risk that our shopping habits will inadvertently push some people out of the auto market, particularly if companies can’t figure out a way to build a profitable EV equivalent of sub-compacts like the Honda Fit. The industry is going to go all-electric, sooner or later.

I’m relatively optimistic on that front, simply because technology keeps evolving, and customer demand is bound to keep things in check. There will always be someone fresh out of college who needs a cheap ride — the industry can’t pretend that everyone is in a position to shell out $40,000 or more for their ideal do-it-all-mobile.

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