Electric cars are seeing their sales plummet so far this year, leading automakers to try to slash prices to woo customers back — and it all may be do to the low gas prices we’ve been having.

The short-term benefits the American consumer has enjoyed through lower gas prices may be coming at a long-term cost: the investment into the nascent electric car industry, which could reduce dependence on fossil fuels at a time when global warming has emerged as an issue of increasingly critical importance. A Fortune.com report indicates that gas prices are having an impact on electric car sales, and a worrying trend has emerged in 2015: 22 percent of owners who traded in their hybrid or electric car replaced it with a gas-guzzling SUV, compared with 12 percent just three years ago.

The reality is that while Americans may be growing increasingly environmentally conscious, at the end of the day most of them still are motivated primarily by financial concerns. Three years ago, Americans may have been able to rationalize the higher prices of hybrids and electric, but with gas at historic lows, the standard fossil fuel-burning car is back in vogue for now, according to the report.

But not everyone agrees that low gas prices have that big of an impact on electric car sales, with a Los Angeles times report indicating the electric vehicle sales were up 3 percent in January 2015 when the national average for gas prices had dipped to $2 per gallon, as compared to January 2014.

It’s likely that, as in most cases, the drop in electric car purchases is due to a host of factors, and not just gas prices. But it certainly isn’t helping.

But if you’re a consumer, you’d better think twice before opening up that checkbook for a brand new car. Gas prices may be low now, but it’s a commodity that fluctuates quite a bit, and very quickly, and it’s generally not a good idea to make a big-ticket purchase for something that you’ll rely on for years based on a temporarily low price in a volatile commodity.