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In 2025, the mainstream media worked tirelessly to portray President Trump’s economic policies as misguided or worse. Good news doesn’t generate a lot of pageviews. So most media outlets seek any bit of bad news they can uncover and then pin the negative result on a single person, thereby proving that person is a big dummy (and they are smart by comparison). Fair enough. In this story, we’ll stick to the facts as they relate to stock prices of U.S.-based automakers for the past year. President Trump was re-elected in a decisive victory on November 5th, 2024. He was sworn in on January 20th, 2025. Our stock data and charts run from December 23, 2024, to the opening of trading on December 24, 2025 (a short trading day). If you wish to see the stock valuations on other days, simply click the links and then use the interactive graphs by pointing your mouse over the date span you wish to see. There are no tricks in this story. The stock prices didn’t change from November 5th, 2024, to January 20th, 2025, in a way that affects the story’s premise.
General Motors Stock Up 57% Over the Past Year
General Motors is based in Detroit, Michigan. The company operates many brands, including Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, Cadillac, and the Hummer sub-brand. Over the past year, GM’s stock rose from $52.56 per share to $82.75 per share. NYSE: GM
Ford Motor Company Stock Up 32% Over the Past Year
Ford Motor Company is based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company operates the Ford and Lincoln brands of automobiles. Ford’s stock rose from $9.90 to $13.29 per share over the past one year period. NYSE: F
Tesla, Inc. Stock Up 13% Over the Past Year
Tesla, Inc. is primarily an automotive manufacturer based in Austin, Texas. Often considered the “most American” automaker, Tesla began its manufacturing in California, still maintains that factory, and has expanded to many other states and also globally. Over the past year, Tesla’s stock has risen from $430.60 to $485.56. Notable in the stock trading period we are referencing, Tesla’s stock was at a low point of $222.15 per share in March. That coincides with the announcement of President Trump’s expansion of President Lyndon Johnson’s 25% tariff on light trucks and President Joe Biden’s existing 100% electric vehicle automobile tariffs. NASDAQ: TSLA
Honda and Toyota Both See Double-Digit Stock Growth in 2025
Two major insourcers (NOT importers) of automobiles to the U.S. market are Honda and Toyota. Each has large-scale manufacturing in the U.S., and each makes its top-selling models in the United States. Both saw their U.S. stocks rise by double-digits in 2025. 22% and 12% respectively. When we say “makes,” we don’t mean “assembles.” Toyota builds cars practically from scratch in Kentucky and Indiana, using American-produced steel, American-produced plastics, and even builds the machines that build the cars on site. I saw this firsthand this fall. NYSE: TM and NYSE: HMC.
Rivian Stock Rises 54%
Rivian is a small U.S.-based manufacturer of automobiles based in Irvine, California. Rivian only builds vehicles in Normal, Illinois, but is currently building other plants in the United States. Rivian's stock rose over the past year from $13.75 to $21.18 per share, a gain of 54%. NASDAQ: RIVN
About Stellantis
Nobody who understands the automotive industry counts Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, RAM, Dodge, and Chrysler, as a “Big 3 American Automaker” for two important reasons. First, the company is based in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, not the United States. Second, many of its models that are sold in America are not made in the United States, but rather imported from Mexico, Canada, and Italy. These include some RAM trucks, some Jeep SUVs, Dodge’s cars, and Chrysler’s minivans.
Conclusions and Opinions
We’ve offered facts that paint a picture of automotive manufacturing companies succeeding under President Donald Trump’s policies with an objective metric - stock valuation. Please offer your own conclusions and opinions in the comments section below.
Related Story: New Vehicle Prices Have Barely Budged Since 2022, but Mainstream and Automotive Media Tell A Different Story To Garner Pageviews
Top of page image of Toyota manufacturing plant by John Goreham. Stock charts courtesy of NYSE, NASDAQ, and Google.
John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. John employs grammar and punctuation software when proofreading, and he sometimes uses image generation tools.
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