A 50 per cent increase in sales is typically considered a very good thing – but when the number of electric vehicles sold in the United States increased by that much during the third quarter from a year earlier, it was a disappointment. Carmakers and analysts expected more, and instead of celebrating, auto executives worried that demand for electric vehicles was slowing down, raising questions about their plans to invest tens of billions of dollars to develop new models and build factories.

General Motors, Ford Motor and Tesla have cited slower sales and signs of a weakening economy in announcing that they would delay spending, striking a blow to the Biden administration’s plan to fight climate change by promoting zero-emission vehicles. Furthermore, this has cast doubts on the effectiveness of federal tax credits for electric car buyers, as policymakers had hoped.

While electric vehicle sales are growing faster than any other major category of automobile, and Americans are projected to buy over one million of them this year, a record, there are still some obstacles and issues that need to be addressed.