Perhaps you’ve heard that electric vehicle sales aren’t as high as the automakers and the government expected them to be. You might have also heard that EV inventories are out of control, with the average dealer sitting on over a hundred days’ worth of battery-powered stock, while many new internal combustion engine, or ICE, vehicles are impossible to get at any price. Fewer than 1 in 10 cars sold this year will be exclusively electric. This is despite lower prices at Tesla and a disturbing amount of taxpayer-funded EV subsidies.

There are many theories in the auto industry and its media to explain this slacking of EV demand, ranging from the merely fanciful to the outright deranged. But the simplest explanation is likely the best. Namely, there’s a limited number of customers for cars that cost more while offering less, and most of those customers already bought one.