Tesla sales fell last year for the first time in more than a decade, as demand faltered and rivals gained pace.

The company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, delivered almost 1.79 million cars last year, down about 1% from 1.8 million in 2023.

Tesla reported its first decline in annual deliveries on Thursday, as the automaker handed over fewer-than-expected electric vehicles in the fourth quarter and incentives failed to boost demand for its aging line-up of models.

Shares of the company closed down 6.1%, indicating investor worries over the challenges facing CEO Elon Musk, who expected promotions including zero-interest financing to power a “slight growth” in deliveries in 2024.

Automakers closed 2024 with strong sales in the United States in the final three months of the year, helped by a surge in demand for electric models.

The gains were led by General Motors, which said on Friday that its fourth-quarter sales rose 21 percent from a year earlier, to more than 755,000 cars and light trucks. Its electric-vehicle sales in the quarter more than doubled, to nearly 44,000, making G.M. the second-largest E.V. seller after Tesla.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra expressed tentative optimism about how President-elect Donald Trump’s America First agenda will affect the manufacturing industry during his second term. 

Trump has promised to enact massive tariffs on competitor countries in order to bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States in cities such as Detroit, where GM and other top automotive companies are based.  

General Motors said Tuesday it is again slowing its plans for all-electric vehicles by further delaying a second U.S. electric truck plant and the Buick brand’s first EV.

The six-month delay in retooling the electric truck plant in Michigan, until mid-2026, also means GM will not achieve a prior target of having North American production capacity of 1 million EVs by 2025.

We are committed to growing responsibly and profitably,” GM CEO Mary Barra told investors Tuesday during the company’s second-quarter earnings call.

The Energy Department on Thursday unveiled $1.7 billion for retooling 11 auto factories to make electric vehicles and their components, with a focus on facilities that have shuttered or could close without federal help.

The Biden administration on Thursday awarded $1.7 billion to convert nearly a dozen shuttered or at-risk automobile plants into factories that can make electric vehicles and their parts.

The grants will assist 11 plants across eight states — Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia — and are designed to support “good-paying union jobs” while helping the U.S. compete with foreign players in the EV market, according to the Department of Energy.

The federal government is providing $1.7 billion in grants to help revitalize 11 shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly facilities — including two in Michigan, the White House and Department of Energy said early Thursday.

The grants will go to projects across eight states — Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia. Collectively, according to the Biden administration, the projects could result in the creation of 2,900 new jobs and the retention of 15,000 current ones.