The transition to electric cars isn’t going as well as hoped. Should we change gears?

The electric vehicle transition is skidding a bit off course. Sales are still up, year over year. But growth isn’t as robust as it once was. Many of the early adopters — the tech enthusiasts and well-heeled environmentalists willing to plunk down $50,000 or more for a zero-emissions vehicle with a slick touchscreen — have already adopted.

And the big automakers are, in turn, scaling back.

General Motors recently announced it would delay production of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra electric pick-up trucks at a Michigan plant for a year. Ford temporarily cut one of three shifts at an EV factory.

And even industry leader Tesla is putting some manufacturing on hold.

Given the importance of getting more people into electric vehicles — one recent estimate suggested rapid adoption of EVs could cut greenhouse gas emissions in America’s transportation sector more than 80 percent by 2050 — policy makers need to consider every option for getting the transition back on course.

That could mean pivoting — sooner than expected — from one of the country’s most ambitious efforts to drive electric vehicles into the mainstream.

For years now, the federal government has offered consumers a $7,500 incentive for the purchase of an EV. And last summer, Congress doubled down on the approach with a high-profile vote to reauthorize and reshape the rebate.

But the move came just as several peers in Europe were starting to wind down their own subsidy programs.

Countries like Germany and England have recognized the incentives can lead to so-called “deadweight” losses; many consumers who take advantage of them would have bought electric vehicles anyway.

And in Britain, the government has shifted resources into the country’s EV charging infrastructure instead, in a bid to alleviate “range anxiety” — that persistent worry among consumers that, if they transition to electric vehicles, they could wind up stranded on the highway with no way to power up.

World Bank research suggests the Brits made a smart trade-off; one study found that investing in chargers can be up to six times more effective in encouraging people to buy electric vehicles than directly subsidizing the purchase of an EV.

Europe, of course, is in a different position than the United States; it is further along in the EV transition. Last year, all-electric vehicles made up about 12 percent of passenger vehicle sales in the European Union compared to 6 percent in the United States. There’s a case to be made, then, for keeping the American incentives in place until the market matures. But Washington should keep close tabs on the efficacy of the rebates and be ready to switch gears; states like Massachusetts that offer their own discounts should take a similar approach.

And in the meantime, policy makers at all levels should make maximal use of the resources they already have for building on the country’s patchwork charging infrastructure.

Start with a key tranche of $7.5 billion Congress approved for chargers in 2021.

It’s been two years and, as Politico recently reported, not a single charger has been installed with the federal dollars.

That owes something to a thicket of contracting and performance requirements imposed by Washington. But the state governments charged with doling out the contracts bear some responsibility for the slow rollout, too. And as the Globe’s Aaron

Pressman has reported, Massachusetts officials have been among the slowest-moving.

They say they’re working to establish a list of “prequalified” vendors — and they argue that, once the list has been approved, the state will be able to move quickly to install fast chargers at rest stops on a series of major roads: Route 2, Interstate 91, Interstate 495, and a portion of Interstate 195.

Some vendors, worried about getting squeezed out in the prequalification phase, have raised valid questions about why the state is determined to narrow the competition at the outset (the state’s transportation department tells the editorial board it wants to key in on firms with the “financial capability, experience, and legal and business administration skills necessary” to oversee a successful charger program).

But whatever the state’s approach, it should move as expeditiously as possible; the sooner Massachusetts builds a bigger charging infrastructure, the faster it can convince car buyers to opt for EVs.

Enhancing the emerging infrastructure’s visibility is critical, too.

“When you drive down a highway, there’s tremendous visibility for gas stations — you see the big lollipop [sign] at the side of the highway,” Philipp Kampshoff, a senior partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company and cofounder of

Given the importance of getting more people into electric vehicles, policy makers need to consider every option for getting the transition back on course.

the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility in the Americas, said in an interview with the editorial board. “We don’t have that for charging infrastructure.”

Lollipops — the big commercial roadside signs gas stations often put up — are probably too expensive for a charging industry still trying to find its footing. But even inclusion on standard highway signs — alerting drivers to the food, lodging, and gas available at the next exit — could make a big difference.

Existing EV drivers aren’t the most important target; most already have apps alerting them to the closest chargers. The aim is to signal to the millions of drivers on the fence about buying an electric vehicle that the public charging infrastructure — if still a work in progress — is more robust than they imagine.

Massachusetts highway officials say they’re all for greater visibility but are hamstrung by outdated federal rules on highway signage that don’t account for EV chargers. The Federal Highway Administration is weighing an overhaul of those rules now. The agency must get it right.

Another critical problem lingers off the highway and in the neighborhood.

City dwellers without a driveway or garage can’t easily charge electric vehicles — and are reluctant to make the transition, as a result. Highly visible remedies are a must.

The city of Cambridge allows some residents to run power cords across the sidewalk to charge their vehicles at the curb, as long as the cables are covered and don’t pose a tripping risk. And Mike Judge, the state’s undersecretary for energy, told the editorial board there are other possibilities, too.

He points to a Melrose project that outfitted utility poles for street-side charging and, he said, “you could, potentially, put chargers right into the sidewalk, too.”

The state, Judge said, is gearing up to fund some pilot programs. And pilots are great. But a shift from demonstration to scale can’t come too soon.

Long considered a niche technology, electric vehicles can — and must — emerge as a key tool in the civilizational struggle to curb climate change.

And the policy makers charged with speeding adoption owe us their sharpest thinking — and their greatest urgency.