Tesla's EU sales slump continues; China's premier warns global trade tensions ‘intensifying'
Update:
Date:
Title: Introduction: Tesla's EU sales slumped in May despite EV market growth
Content: Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.
Tesla's sales across Europe are continuing to slide, even as demand for electric cars rises.
The latest car sales data, just released, show that Tesla sold 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's shares have been sliding across Europe through 2026, a decline blamed on CEO Elon Musk's political activities, the company's outdated model lineup, and competition from rivals such as China's BYD.
Musk's high-profile blow-up with president Trump, at the start of June, came too late to affect today's data. Tesla will be hoping that its updated Model Y model, which was expected 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.
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
Update:
Date: 2025-06-25T06:42:20.000Z
Title: China's premier warns global trade tensions 'intensifying'
Content: Chinese premier Li Qiang has warned today that global trade tensions are 'intensifying'.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2025 in 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.
Li told 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.'
Update:
Date: 2025-06-25T06:41:57.000Z
Title: Introduction: Tesla's EU sales slumped in May despite EV market growth
Content: Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.
Tesla's sales across Europe are continuing to slide, even as demand for electric cars rises.
The latest car sales data, just released, show that Tesla sold 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's shares have been sliding across Europe through 2026, a decline blamed on CEO Elon Musk's political activities, the company's outdated model lineup, and competition from rivals such as China's BYD.
Musk's high-profile blow-up with president Trump, at the start of June, came too late to affect today's data. Tesla will be hoping that its updated Model Y model, which was expected 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.
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
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