Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Wednesday, August 9th. I'm Naila Boudou.

Today, U.S. credit card debt reaches a record high. Plus, a new national monument in Arizona.

But first, a tough new era for electric vehicles. That's today's one big thing.

The push for electric vehicles to become more mainstream has gained serious momentum in recent

years, given climate change fluctuations in gas prices and tax incentives. Just yesterday,

General Motors announced plans to equip all of its electrical cars and trucks with two-way

charging technology, so the vehicles can supply backup power during blackouts.

But as companies, including GM, look to adapt their EV plans for the future,

Axios' Joanne Muller writes, the broader transition to electric vehicles will likely be longer

and bumpier than many experts predicted. She's here with a reality check on EVs today and tomorrow.

Hey, Joanne. Hi, Naila. Joanne, so I think we're past the early adopters phase with EVs. We're

seeing a lot more of these vehicles on the road. How much of the market are EVs right now?

They're about six or seven percent of new vehicle sales right now, which is more than double

what they were a year ago. So we've seen quite a spike, but it's very spotty. So San Francisco now

is half of all new vehicle sales are electric. California's as a whole is around, I believe, 25 percent,

but you're not going to find too many EVs in Des Moines. And so it's really a spotty trend.

So you write the next phase of EV expansion in the US will be tough. Why is that?

There's two big problems. One is the price of EVs are still high, much higher at the point of

sale over a gasoline vehicle. And also people are still very, very confused and apprehensive about

charging. And so this second wave of buyers, they call them the early majority. They're very

price sensitive. They're interested in buying an EV, but they're just not ready to pull that trigger.

And so what it means is that the auto companies are having to adjust. How is that affecting EV

...