Tesla sales fell last year for the first time in the company’s history, the company reported on Thursday. This reflects a lack of new models in an increasingly competitive electric vehicle market, analysts said.

Vehicle deliveries fell to 1.79 million, down 1.1% from 1.81 million vehicles in 2023.

Tesla shares were down about 6% in afternoon trading.

Jessica Caldwell, an auto analyst at Edmunds, noted that there have been few changes to Tesla’s core model lineup in recent years.

“Especially with electric vehicles, you have to attract new and returning buyers,” she said. “In the EV market, people want something new and fresh.”

The company had no comment beyond a press release detailing quarterly and full-year results, although it will host a public financial results webcast on Jan. 29. CEO Elon Musk posted 25 comments on X on Monday morning, 23 of them political, but none about Tesla.

Musk’s increasingly conservative politics and his rapprochement with Republican President-elect Donald Trump could also be a factor in left-leaning states like California, his largest U.S. market, Caldwell said.

“There are people who have a negative image of Elon Musk, and that has spoiled the Tesla a little.”

Most of the sales decline occurred in the fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31, despite cheaper financing offers from Tesla.

Tesla, once a darling of California electric vehicle buyers, has suffered setbacks in the Golden State, with sales falling 3.5% in the third quarter, according to the state dealers trade group. Tesla itself does not break down the numbers by state. Fourth-quarter estimates from the California New Car Dealers Assn. will be available later this month.

Whether Tesla’s decline signals deeper problems in the EV market at large will become clearer as other companies report their 2024 sales in the coming days. The rapid growth of the electric vehicle market has slowed as customers resist higher prices and balk at an inefficient public charging system.

Tesla used to have the electric vehicle market almost entirely to itself, but that’s no longer the case. The Ioniq 5 from Hyundai and the EV6 and EV9 from Kia are selling particularly well. Dozens of models from other automakers have been introduced in recent years, with more than a dozen from Volvo, Volkswagen, Cadillac, GMC, Polestar, Porsche and others in 2024 alone.

The electric vehicle market could take a hit if Trump follows through on his plans to eliminate the federal tax credit for electric vehicle buyers of up to $7,500 per vehicle.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has said he would seek to provide state tax credits if that were to happen, but his plan would exclude Tesla given how much the state has already spent on Tesla subsidies. Despite slowing growth, Tesla remains by far the best-selling electric vehicle provider in California and the entire United States.

According to Musk, Tesla investors can expect a new round of strong growth from the introduction of robotaxis, even though he has been promising fully self-driving Teslas since at least 2017 but has not yet implemented them.