California was once one of the country’s leading states when it came to sales of electric vehicles. Over the past decade, as years went on the market got better and better, each year’s sales beating out the last. That was the case until the end of 2023. The second half of the year showed a significant decline in the sales, suggesting several different possibilities as to why.

The decline in electric vehicle sales could be a sign of consumer fatigue of high prices, as the cost of zero-emission electric vehicles is quite high. It could be a result of unreliable and too limited charging networks. Lastly, the decline could be related to consumer’s disinterest in the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk. While Tesla is not the only electric vehicle brand on the market, Musk has become a bit of the face of electric vehicles.

Elon Musk’s public image did shatter a bit in 2023.

In the summer of 2023, Musk purchased and officially rebranded the popular social media platform, Twitter, now known as X. This caused a steep loss of interest in Musk and his business endeavors, which given his association with electric vehicles, could have actually negatively affected the market as a whole.

This decline in sales is quite concerning to experts. It alludes to the state not being able to successfully achieve a goal that was set forth by the state leaders. This goal was for California to ban the sale of all gas- and diesel-powered cars and light trucks by 2035. This is one of the state’s biggest goals to better our fight against climate change. With the new trend of decreasing electric vehicle sales, this goal may eventually become unreachable. The director of automotive engineering at AAA, Greg Bannon, described the phenomenon as, “The government and automakers [having] spent billions on something consumers may not want.”

In the first half of the year, electric vehicle sales were booming.

There was a 48% increase compared to the numbers from the same quarter the year before. California itself made up about one quarter of the entire country’s electric vehicle sales. Then suddenly, sales took a turn and got worse and worse.

Now, we are entering a time in which Teslas are facing a massive recall, with over two million of them being recalled. This is causing people’s trust in the vehicle to worsen, which could lead to even worse sales numbers.