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Has California鈥檚 transition to electric cars hit some bumps in the road? Even though Californians are buying them in record numbers, several industry setbacks have been reported in recent months.

The rental car company Hertz is selling , replacing them with gas-powered vehicles. Ford in January announced that it was of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck after .

Tesla sales in California dropped 10% in the last three months of 2023, when compared to the same quarter a year earlier, according to . And some automakers and delays in new electric models.

Today, the California Energy Commission provided another piece of the puzzle: Sales of electric cars in California reached , with 446,961 sold, up 29% from 2022, according to Veloz, a nonprofit that works with the commission to promote electric vehicle growth in California.

But while sales of electric cars are still growing, it鈥檚 a slower pace of growth than the previous year: 2022 sales increased 38% from 2021.

During the final three months of 2023, Californians purchased 103,127 electric cars, an 8% increase over the same period in 2022. Fourth quarter sales last year were down 14% from the third quarter. But sales typically slow in the fourth quarter, and higher interest rates may have played a role, the commission said.

Nick Nigro, founder of Atlas Public Policy, which researches the electric car market, said the transition to electric cars might be slower than some automakers and experts anticipated.

鈥淩ecognize where we are in a once-in-a-century transition 鈥� we鈥檙e in the very early stages,鈥� Nigro said. 鈥淓ven though EVs have been around for about 14 years, in this current iteration they only really started to pick up sales nationally in the last five years or so.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 no surprise that the industry is going to have to adjust their expectations,鈥� he added.

So far, the increased market share for electric vehicles means California is moving toward hitting its goals: Electric vehicles in California made up 25% of the new car market last year, up from nearly 19% in 2022. The state has that 35% of new 2026 cars sold must be zero-emissions, ramping up to 68% in 2030 and 100% in 2035.

鈥淭ransportation electrification is rapidly unfolding,鈥� David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission said in a recorded video announcement.

Nationally an estimated 1.2 million electric vehicles were sold in 2023, also .

The pace of California鈥檚 transition matters because it is far and above America鈥檚 leader in sales, and a rapid transition to electric vehicles is key to slashing greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.

When originally introduced, Ford鈥檚 electric F-150 Lightning was so popular it had a . But in January, the company said it was at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Mich., from two shifts to one, with some workers transferred to factories assembling gas-powered cars. Sales of the electric truck were up 55% in 2023 and Ford projected 鈥渇urther growth for 2024,鈥� but said it was making the changes to better meet customer demand of its pickups.

Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis, cautioned about reading too much into the slowed-down production of the Ford F-150 Lightning. One interpretation, he said, is that the pickup truck might just simply not be the right product, calling it a 鈥渞etrofitted vehicle鈥� in which 鈥渢hey just pulled out the drive.鈥�

What鈥檚 more, there could be broader financial reasons for the F-150 Lightning slowdown. Sales of all cars slowed last year and legacy automakers faced cash flow challenges and a strike from the United Auto Workers union.

鈥淭hey鈥檝e got financial challenges, so if they can come up with an excuse to slow down their investments, they鈥檙e going to do it,鈥� Sperling said. 鈥淏ut every one of them is just delaying. Not one of them is canceling.鈥�

Earlier this year, Hertz said it was selling its 20,000 electric car fleet. In an , Hertz Chief Executive Stephen Scherr blamed price cuts by Tesla for lowering the resale value of the cars, and added that they were more expensive to repair and more likely to be involved in collisions.

Last year, sales by Tesla, by far the leader in electric vehicle sales, sold 230,589 cars, up from 185,090 in 2022, . But sales dropped in the final three months of the year to 47,592 from 52,782 over the same period the year before. Analysts say that a variety of factors may be at play, such as lower resale value after Tesla鈥檚 sticker prices dropped.

One of the biggest problems facing electric car adoption across the U.S. 鈥� and the world 鈥� is the need for more seamless charging.

A lack of adequate public chargers has become a major impediment as customers begin to weigh electric cars as an alternative to gas-powered vehicles. To that end, the Biden administration is pouring some $ across the nation, with California getting $168.5 million.

While California is meeting its goals for new and sales, the state is projecting that it will need a much more robust electric charging network to support its ban of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 and serve all drivers statewide.

An projects鈥痶hat California will need 1.01 million non-private chargers by 2030, and 2.11 million by 2035. It now has only 93,000, data. The state has met at least one important charging infrastructure goal, .

California鈥檚 efforts to support electric car sales could also be stymied by its budget issues. Last year, California to focus on providing subsidies only to lower-income car buyers through the Clean Cars 4 All program, which has strict income limits.

This year, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a three-year delay for additional funding for that program, along with other programs aimed at increasing lower-income Californians鈥� access to cars.

Bill Magavern, policy director of the Clean Air Coalition, said he鈥檚 concerned that it could leave low-income communities behind. He thinks the funding delays will likely result in cuts to the program.

鈥淲e鈥檙e very disappointed in the governor鈥檚 proposal because he literally made a promise that he鈥檚 not keeping,鈥� Magavern said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really a fiction to say, well, we鈥檙e maintaining this funding, we鈥檙e just delaying it by three years.鈥�

Changes in federal tax incentives also may impact sales. The Treasury started the that . The incentives are limited to cars with parts sourced from the U.S. and its allies.

Globally, electric car sales are likely to face a 鈥渞eality check鈥� this year 鈥済iven consumer apathy over a lack of fast public chargers and high prices, though China is an exception,鈥� according to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence.

Sales of electric calls in Europe fell for the first time since April of 2020, . And analysts have warned that German carmakers are falling behind Tesla and Chinese models as global competition intensifies.

 is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.