Acura is suspending RDX production “as key suppliers exit,” and there won’t be a replacement for at least two years. This is a big deal for Acura given RDX is a top seller, as any line’s compact SUV tends to be.

This is the pain of a strategic bet not playing out as planned. Later this year, Acura will introduce what is presumably an indirect replacement—the RSX—but it’s EV-only, which leaves the brand without a true volume offering in the interim. Acura, like many others, seems to have thought the fully EV future would arrive faster and doesn’t seem to have planned to keep the RDX alive. Hence green lighting a new version too late to deliver before the current RDX sunsets.

Other players with longer-in-the-tooth models have kept them on the road with light updates—Audi Q7/Q8 and Volvo XC90, both launched in 2015, are two that come to mind—so it’s curious Acura wasn’t able to stretch the RDX a little longer. Platform constraints? Supplier economics?

There are many variables in a transition like this—consumers, regulation, infrastructure, technology—plenty of well-respected players have struggled on strategy here and all have had to iterate and adjust in meaningful ways.