LA, San Francisco Buy 35 Percent of All the Country's Electric Cars

Incentives from the state -- including a free ride in the carpool lane -- are spurring Californian's early adoption

Who killed the electric car? It's not California -- and it's not Los Angeles.

More than one-third -- 35 percent, to be exact -- of all electric cars sold in the United States are registered in Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to data published in The Detroit News.

Some 9,700 new electric cars were registered in the Golden State in the first half of 2013.

That's 1.1 percent of all the state's auto sales, which may not sound like much -- and it's not -- but it's almost triple the 0.4 percent from 2012, the California New Car Dealers Association reported.

Californians are proving to be "early adopters" of electric car technology, and car manufacturers have noticed, according to Jalopnik, a blog covering cars, car culture and the auto industry.

And there's incentive from the state helping make it all happen.

Of the country's 6,440 public electric vehicle charging stations, 1,400 are in California, the Detroit News reported. Electric vehicles also receive tax incentives, as well as a free ride in the carpool lane.

In all, half of electric vehicles sold in the U.S. are sold in California, the news sources reported.

Popular models include the Fiat 500e, and the Bay Area's own Tesla Motors.

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