Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.
Tesla’ssales across Europe are continuing to slide, even as demand for electric cars rises.
The latest car sales data, just released, shows thatTeslasold 8,729 vehicles across the European Union last month, down from 14,682 in May 2024. That’s a 40.5% drop, which shrinks Tesla’s market share from 1.6% to 0.9%.
Tesla’sshares have been sliding across Europe through 2026, a decline blamed on CEOElonMusk’spolitical activities, the company’s outdated model lineup, andcompetition from rivals such as China’s BYD.
Musk’shigh-profile blow-up with president Trump, at the start of June, came too late to affect today’s data.Teslawill be hoping that its updated Model Y model, which wasexpected to roll out in Europe this month, can reverse the sales slump.
Overall, sales of electric cars rose by 25% last month – with 142,776 battery electric cars sold, up from 114,231 in May 2024.
ACEA, the industry body that collates the data, reports:
Up until May 2025, battery-electric cars accounted for 15.4% of the total EU market share, an increase from the low baseline of 12.1% in May 2024 YTD.
Hybrid-electric car registrations continue to surge, capturing 35.1% of the market, remaining the preferred choice among EU consumers.
Meanwhile, the combined market share of petrol and diesel cars fell to 38.1%, down from 48.5% over the same period in 2024.
The overall European car market grew by 1.6% in May, year on year, but is down 0.6% during 2025.
10am BST: Treasury committee hearing on the spending review, with Darren Jones MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Noon BST: US weekly mortgage approvals data
3pm BST: US new home sales data for May
3pm BST: Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s second day of testimony to Congress
Babcock, one of the biggest suppliers to the Ministry of Defence, has reported a 52% rise in pre-tax profit to £329m for its latest financial year, as its chief executive hails a “new era of defence” this morning.
David Lockwood, the boss of theFTSE100 company, said:
“There is increasing recognition of the need to invest in defence capability and energy security, both to safeguard populations and to drive economic growth.”
Shares inBabcockhave roughly doubled in value in the past year, as various governments have ramped up their commitments to defence spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East.
Babcock, which employs more than 26,000 people, is perhaps best known for managing Devonport, a naval dockyard in southwest England that is the largest of its kind in western Europe.
Revenue rose by 11% in its latest financial year, driven by strong growth in its nuclear and marine divisions. The nuclear business grew particularly strongly, with revenue up 19%. The company upgraded its guidance over the medium term, with an expected underlying profit margin now at 9%, up from previously forecast 8%.Babcockalso announced it would buy back £200m worth of its own shares over the course of its current financial year.
Lockwood, who has led the business since 2020, noted that “a combination of continued global insecurity, rising global threats and rapidly evolving technology” had resulted in a stronger stance on defence and security by governments across its markets.
Babcocktold the City:
“Nations are increasingly focused on securing national sovereignty and industrial resilience, prioritising equipment and infrastructure modernisation, evolving technologies and the need to work in partnership with industry.
These trends are likely to drive significant defence spending and increased investment in the civil nuclear sector for the foreseeable future.”
Here’s a chart showing the European car sales market so far this year
Chinese premier Li Qiang has warned today that global trade tensions are “intensifying”.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum’sAnnual Meeting of the New Champions 2025in Tianjin, Li said the global economy was “undergoing profound changes” – a nod to Donald Trump’s trade wars that have shaken the global economy this year.
Litold the event, dubbed the “Summer Davos”:
“Protectionist measures are significantly increasing and global economic and trade frictions are intensifying.
“The global economy is deeply integrated and no country can grow or prosper alone.”
“In times when the global economy faces difficulties, what we need is not the law of the jungle where the weak fall prey to the strong, but cooperation and mutual success for a win-win outcome.”
Speaking a few weeks after the US and China hammered out a new trade ‘framework’, Li also insisted China would “open its doors still wider to the world.
And, in a rebuff to criticism of the world’s current trading systems, Li insisted that economic globalisation will not be reversed, and will “only carve out a new path.”
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.
Tesla’ssales across Europe are continuing to slide, even as demand for electric cars rises.
The latest car sales data, just released, shows thatTeslasold 8,729 vehicles across the European Union last month, down from 14,682 in May 2024. That’s a 40.5% drop, which shrinks Tesla’s market share from 1.6% to 0.9%.
Tesla’sshares have been sliding across Europe through 2026, a decline blamed on CEOElonMusk’spolitical activities, the company’s outdated model lineup, andcompetition from rivals such as China’s BYD.
Musk’shigh-profile blow-up with president Trump, at the start of June, came too late to affect today’s data.Teslawill be hoping that its updated Model Y model, which wasexpected to roll out in Europe this month, can reverse the sales slump.
Overall, sales of electric cars rose by 25% last month – with 142,776 battery electric cars sold, up from 114,231 in May 2024.
ACEA, the industry body that collates the data, reports:
Up until May 2025, battery-electric cars accounted for 15.4% of the total EU market share, an increase from the low baseline of 12.1% in May 2024 YTD.
Hybrid-electric car registrations continue to surge, capturing 35.1% of the market, remaining the preferred choice among EU consumers.
Meanwhile, the combined market share of petrol and diesel cars fell to 38.1%, down from 48.5% over the same period in 2024.
The overall European car market grew by 1.6% in May, year on year, but is down 0.6% during 2025.
10am BST: Treasury committee hearing on the spending review, with Darren Jones MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Noon BST: US weekly mortgage approvals data
3pm BST: US new home sales data for May
3pm BST: Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s second day of testimony to Congress