American automakers are delaying or abandoning their promises of electric vehicle (E.V.) production, citing cooling market demand. Unfortunately, government subsidies and mandates are unlikely to go away as easily.

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors (G.M.), the United States’ top-selling automaker, had walked back its E.V. production ambitions. CEO Mary Barra told investors in February 2022 that the company planned to manufacture, sell, and deliver 400,000 E.V.s in North America by the end of this year. In October 2022, Barra delayed the deadline by as much as six months, citing difficulty sourcing raw materials.

Now G.M. is abandoning that plan altogether amid cooling demand. Last week, the automaker announced that it was delaying E.V. production at its factory in Orion Township, near Detroit. In July, Ford similarly announced that it expected to hit its goal of producing 600,000 E.V.s per year in 2024—not in 2023, as it had previously predicted.