You could be forgiven for thinking that electric cars might finally be gaining momentum in the US.

After all, sales of battery cars topped 1.2 million last year, more than five times the number just four years earlier. Hybrid sales have jumped by a factor of three.

Battery-powered cars accounted for 10% of overall sales in August - a new high, according to S&P Global Mobility.

And in updates to investors this week, General Motors, Ford, Tesla and other companies all reported record electric sales over the past three months.

This marked a bright spot in an industry wrestling with the fallout from still high interest rates and buyers on edge over inflation, tariffs and the wider economy.

But analysts say the boom was caused by a dash to buy before the end of a government subsidy that helped knock as much as $7,500 (£5,588) off the price of certain battery electric, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell vehicles.

With that tax credit gone as of the end of September, carmakers are expecting momentum to shift into reverse.

"It's going to be a vibrant industry, but it's going to be smaller, way smaller than we thought," Ford chief executive Jim Farley said at an event on Tuesday.

"I expect that EV demand is going to drop off pretty precipitously," the chief financial officer of General Motors, Paul Jacobson, said at a conference last month, adding it would take time to see how quickly buyers would come back.

Even with the recent gains, the US, the world's second biggest car market, stood out as a laggard in electric car sales compared to much of the rest of the world.

In the UK, for example, sales of battery electric and hybrid cars made up nearly 30% of new sales last year, according to the........

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