There’s a “panic” in the automotive industry as demand for electric vehicles continues to lag expectations, and the rise of Chinese imports threaten to upend the U.S. market.

“There’s a lot of panic, and some of the panic is justified,” Sam Abuelsamid, analyst for Guidehouse Insights in Detroit, told the Detroit Free Press. “Everybody is talking about ‘the EV sales are collapsing,’ which is not true. They haven’t declined universally.”

They also have not grown at a pace many in the auto industry had predicted, despite billions in government tax incentives aimed at motivating a mass transition to EVs and billions more spent on charging ports to support them.

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Cox Automotive had expected EV sales to account for about 9.5% of total sales in 2024, but a significant sales decline from Tesla and delayed model launches by General Motors has dampened that projection. In June, Cox forecast EVs will comprise 8.3% of the new car sales, up slightly from 7.6% last year, but well behind the adoption rate in European countries and China, where market share is now in double digits, according to the Free Press.

The resistance to EVs in the U.S. is driven by a variety of factors, from the higher initial cost compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, to a lack of charging infrastructure, to practical considerations like range and capacity.

The slower than expected sales also comes as Chinese manufacturers who are currently blocked from the U.S. continue to refine more advanced, lower priced EVs many believe could upend the U.S. market.

“Tariffs prevent that now, but when China can enter the states and sell EVs, experts said it could be the 1970s all over again if U.S. automakers aren’t prepared,” the Free Press reports. “In the 1970s, Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda captured a large part of the U.S. market with their small, fuel-efficient, affordable cars that U.S. companies did not offer.”

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“It’s not just real, it’s terrifying if you thought about (Chinese EVs) in a total open, free market perspective,” Mark Wakefield, co-leader of Global Automotive and Industrial Practice AlixPartners in Troy, told the news site. “Elon Musk is worried about it. He said if it was an open market, the Chinese would decimate the Western automakers.”

While Tesla accounts for the majority of EV sales in the U.S., it has reported sales declines in both of the last two quarters, briefly falling behind Chinese EV maker BYD in global sales during the first quarter of 2024 before regaining the lead for worldwide sales in the second quarter.

Ford EV sales have increased by 61% in the second quarter, and GM EV sales by 40%, though both sold a mere fraction of Tesla’s global sales. Stellantis is only now selling fully electric vehicles as its Fiat 500e heads to dealers this summer, the Free Press reports.

Stephanie Brinley, associate director of auto intelligence at S&P Global Mobility, told the news site EV registrations hit 1.14 million last year, and another 367,000 new EVs were registered through the first quarter of 2024. Those numbers are largely early adopters, she said, and auto companies are now forced to work harder to sell folks on the transition.

“You’ve got to convince people now,” Brinley said. “EVs are a big change, and people don’t generally love change for change’s sake. So you have to put it in a package that works for their lives and their budgets. We are in a phase when that’s starting to happen.”

Recent surveys have shown affordability, selection, and concerns about range continue to be significant hurdles for many. GM, Ford, and Stellantis are all working to expand EV models available, while rolling back ambitious goals and plans to align with lower than expected demand.

Ford recently postponed plans for a Canadian EV plant to expand capacity for Super Duty trucks, just months after the company shaved $1 billion off its planned $3.5 billion EV battery plant near Marshall.

Stellantis, meanwhile, is laying off thousands of employees, and GM is pushing back its goal of transitioning to an all-electric fleet.

“We said back in 2018 that we’re committed to an all-electric future,” GM CEO Mary Barra told NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt last Tuesday. “But as we make this transformation, it’s going to happen over decades.”

It’s a similar message from Stellantis, with CEO Carlos Tavares hedging the company’s plans for 50% of U.S. sales to be electric by the end of the decade during an Investor Day discussion in June.

“Now if the market is not there, obviously, in our day-to-day decisions, we’ll take into consideration the fact that we are not going to use the money of our shareholders to invest in something that the customers do not want. Obviously,” he said, according to the Free Press.

A poll commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV released last week shows only a quarter of Michiganders plan on buying an EV any time soon, and more than half oppose spending tax dollars on the government-imposed transition.

In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has pumped billions into the transition, claiming the spending will generate 12,000 jobs. A recent Bridge Michigan analysis found with $1 billion already spent, only 200 jobs have materialized.

Other polling shows 63% of Michiganders oppose a gas car ban, such as new EPA regulations promoted by the Biden administration that would eliminate all current internal combustion vehicle options.

Still other research from a Kinsey Mobility Consumer Pulse Study found 46% of 800 American EV and plug-in hybrid owners plan to switch back to a gasoline-powered vehicle for their next purchase.

Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com, suggests all of the above is forcing a reality check on the EV industry that’s driving the panic, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious the focus on fully transitioning to electric over the coming decade is not going to happen.

“Are they making a mistake going to all-electric? My short answer is yes. Maybe not long term. Going all electric by 2050, I’d say that’s a good goal. That’s somewhat aggressive but realistic,” Brauer told the Free Press. “But 2030 is unrealistic foolishness and financially precarious at best. It’s a bad idea; it’s going to cost you a lot. The realistic take is, it will take a lot longer than what people were originally thinking.”