A flurry of recent news stories showing a slipping demand for electric vehicles aren't telling the whole story, says Albert Gore, the son of the former vice president.

Gore, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, an EV industry advocacy group, says that narrative is giving the wrong impression about the pace of EV sales, at least through the first three quarters of the year.

“Sales have consistently grown over the year, not just in raw numbers but also as a percent of total new vehicle sales,” Gore, whose organization counts 60 member companies including Tesla, Rivian, ChargePoint, LG, Uber and Lyft, told the Free Press this week. “They’re certainly on pace to exceed a million sales for the first time ever and may have already done so.”

It’s true, according to Cox Automotive and Kelley Blue Book.

U.S. sales of EVs in the third quarter passed an estimated 313,000 vehicles, and more than 873,000 vehicles for the year to date, according to Kelley Blue Book’s electric vehicle sales report for the third quarter. That represents an almost 49% year-over-year sales increase through the third quarter.

Cox Automotive noted in a release that EV sales accounted for 7.9% of total industry sales in the third quarter, “a record and up from 6.1% a year ago and 7.2% in Q2.” Cox predicted that EVs could pass the million mark in annual sales by November.

Much of the focus of the news has been on how long EVs are sitting on dealer lots and an increase in the time it takes to sell them compared with last year.

The Free Press noted that shift in an article late last month, which put the average number of days an EV sat on a dealership lot before it was sold in September at 65 days compared with 21 the same month a year prior.

"EVs were at one point the fastest-selling vehicles on a dealer's lot; now becoming the slowest seller is not confidence inspiring," Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds.com, told the Free Press in that report.

That news was coupled with announcements of some automaker pullbacks on EV projects, such as a planned partnership between Honda and General Motors to build affordable EVs, as well as Ford’s decision to delay $12 billion in EV-related investments.

But this perhaps only highlights a more complex picture of the market. More EVs are now available than there were a year ago, meaning consumers have more choices, and prices are also down.

“At last check, we had (14 or 15) new EV models for sale that were not available a year earlier. Better choices and more options are helping push prices lower and drive higher sales,” Stephanie Valdez-Streaty, director of Industry Insights at Cox Automotive, said in an October news release.

Individual automakers also have their own experiences. Cox noted in a separate release the low numbers for new Chevrolet Blazer and Silverado EV sales, “just an initial few to mark a Q3 launch.” On the other hand, sales of BMW and Mercedes EVs together more than tripled from year-ago numbers and Audi recorded a 94% EV sales gain for the quarter, it said.

Cox noted that “most analysts expect a flood of new EVs in the coming three years, with the number of available EV products likely to double by 2027. … Of late, product availability has grown exponentially, while consumer acceptance has grown in a more linear fashion. Those trends will likely continue, making for some very interesting market dynamics in the years ahead. Change is never easy.”

Gore said the proper contextual lens through which to view these market changes is one of demand, which is “way stronger than anybody would have anticipated three to four years ago.”

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Taking the view that more days in inventory signals that demand is falling through the floor “is not the right conclusion,” Gore said.

One difference between gas-powered vehicles and electric vehicles to consider, Gore noted, is the sales process itself. Aside from people who sign up for waiting lists for specific models, buyers considering an EV tend to take longer to make their purchases because they often have lots of questions that probably don't apply to the sale of a gas-powered vehicle.

A customer might want to know, for instance, how an EV will fit into that one big trip the customer takes each year.

When asked about the possibility that potential buyers are hearing more stories circulating about charging issues or limited towing range, Gore didn’t deflect.

“I don’t want to come across as not taking this seriously. There are serious bumps in the road. Whenever you’re rolling out a new product, there are going to be issues,” he said.

U.S. Energy Secretary and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, for instance, had a notably challenging EV road trip this summer that, according to NPR, was “intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars.” Instead, the trip mostly succeeded in highlighting the limitations of the nation’s charging infrastructure.

Issues like these, however, are expected to improve over time.

EVs themselves have also come a long way from the days when they were thought of as “glorified golf carts,” Gore said.

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“You would only buy one if you were willing to sacrifice literally everything that people like about cars,” he said. “Now we’re in a period where EVs really don’t represent any kind of sacrifice like that for the most part.”

Gore avoided a couple of topics that delved into the political and personal. He declined to weigh in when asked about former President Donald Trump, who painted EVs as an existential threat to autoworker jobs during a trip to Macomb County during the recent UAW strike. He also declined to answer a question about conversations on EV-related issues he might have with his father, who has long warned of the dangers of climate change.

Gore noted that he and his organization, which is about three years old, have had conversations with people on both sides of the political spectrum who love EVs. Those include individuals who like the ease of charging at home and the lower cost of maintenance as well as those focused on the jobs picture in the United States, with huge EV-related investments heading toward states from Michigan and Ohio to Kentucky and Tennessee and beyond.

Gore said his group is committed to depoliticizing EVs, noting the potential economic opportunities they bring.

“We’re in a much different place now than we were five years ago, 10 years ago as an EV industry,” he said. “We are in a critical period right now, for whether we actually succeed in securing the supply chain and growing these hundreds of thousands of jobs here or whether we don’t.”

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Albert Gore: EV sales expected to top 1M this year for 1st time