General Motors is killing several passenger cars, including the Chevrolet Volt and Chevrolet Cruze, two compact vehicles that were held up as examples of the automaker's post-bankruptcy revival.

The move — part of a sweeping cost-cutting plan unveiled Monday — comes as Americans are abandoning passenger cars in favor of crossovers, SUVs and pickups.

The automaker will no longer make the Volt semi-electric car and the Cruze compact sedan for sale in North America beginning in March, Chevy spokesman Kevin Kelly confirmed.

GM will also discontinue the Chevrolet Impala full-size car, the company confirmed. It will end U.S. production in March and Canadian production in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Kelly declined to say whether the company would sell any of those products in markets outside North America.

The company will also end U.S. sales of the Cadillac XTS and Buick LaCrosse luxury cars after production ends in March. And the Cadillac CT6 will be killed off in the U.S. after mid-2019, though it will continue to be sold in China.

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The moves are part of a sweeping $6 billion cost-cutting plan announced Monday. GM is poised to close plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Canada, and cut 15 percent of its salaried workforce.

The Volt's demise comes about 10 years after the semi-electric vehicle's production model debuted. The automaker trumpeted the Volt for years as a symbol of its alternative propulsion expertise, but the company has since pivoted toward building fully battery-powered cars. The Volt still had a small gas engine paired with its battery pack.

Mike Ramsey, mobility and transportation analyst for Gartner, said the Volt was "a beautiful design" and a sensible solution for its time. But he said pure battery-powered cars are ultimately a better solution than plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, like the Volt, which compromise on battery range to make way for a small gas engine.

"The only one that really surprises me is the volt and even then I understand the rationale," Ramsey said. "They’re basically saying that halfway doesn’t work — we’re going all the way."

Like the Volt, the Cruze was also described for years as an illustration of GM's recovery after its federal bailout and bankruptcy. GM's decision to locate Cruze production in Ohio breathed new life into the Lordstown plant and was hailed by President Barack Obama's administration as reflective of the auto industry's revival.

But sales eventually plunged as the entire industry struggled to sell cars.

The old GM would have heavily discounted the Cruze and other models to keep them alive, Autotrader analyst Michelle Krebs said. But that would have compromised profits, which are ultimately critical to keeping the company alive and thriving.

"They just don’t do that anymore," Krebs said. "They have shown a lot more discipline since the Great Recession."

In the first nine months of 2018, U.S. sales of the Volt fell 15.9 percent to 12,664 units, compared with a year earlier. During the same period:

• Cruze sales fell 26.5 percent to 109,662.

• Impala sales declined 13.4 percent to 43,952.

• CT6 sales fell 10.6 percent to 7,240.

• XTS sales rose 15.9 percent to 12,664.

• LaCrosse sales fell 14.2 percent to 13,409.

Altogether, during the first nine months of the year GM sold 199,591 units of the vehicles to be discontinued.

That's less than half of the Chevy Silverado, GM's most popular model.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.