Tesla’s UK sales more than halve in July
Just in: Sales of Teslas in the UK more than halved, year-on-year, in the UK last month as the electric carmaker’s struggles continue.
Industry body data just released shows that just 987 new Teslas were registered in the UK in July, almost 60% less than the 2,462 registered in July 2024. This means Tesla’s UK market share shrank to 0.7% in July, from 1.67% a year ago.
For 2025 to date, Tesla sales in the UK are 7% lower, during a year in which CEO Elon Musk has faced heavy criticism for his – now-soured – relationship with Donald Trump.
The wider UK electric car sector grew in July, though. Sales of battery-powered vehicles (BEVs) rose by 9.1% to 29,825, giving BEVs a 21.3% share of the market.
China’s BYD more than quadrupled its sales last month, to 3,184 in July from 768 a year ago. The company recently launched a relatively cheap electric car, the Dolphin Surf, in the UK.
BYD’s sales are up 514% during 2025 to 22,574, up from 3,672 in January-July 2024. That’s only slightly fewer than Tesla which has shifted 23,708 cars so far this year.
Last month Tesla reported a large drop in quarterly deliveries, as demand faltered due to the backlash over CEO Elon Musk’s political stance.
Tesla’s sales have also been hurt by its aging model line-up – the company has been rolling out an updated Model Y this year, dubbed the “Juniper” refresh.
Yesterday, Tesla announced it was handing Musk stock options worth almost $30bn, in an attempt to keep him committed to the company for the next few years.
Overall, the UK’s new car market shrank by 5% in July with 140,154 units registered, which is the weakest July since 2022.
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, says:
July’s dip shows yet again the new car market’s sensitivity to external factors, and the pressing need for consumer certainty. Confirming which models qualify for the new EV grant, alongside compelling manufacturer discounts on a huge choice of exciting new vehicles, should send a strong signal to buyers that now is the time to switch.
That would mean increased demand for the rest of this year and into next, which is good news for the industry, car buyers and our environmental ambitions.
Key events
Awkwardly, a rival survey of America’s services sector paints a darker picture.
According to the Institute of Supply Management, US service sector firms barely grew in July as Donald Trump’s trade wars pushed up costs, and led to job losses.
The ISM’s service sector PMI has dropped to 50.1% last month from 50.8% in June, a level that shows growth almost petered out.
One company, in the Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting sector, told ISM:
“Higher tariffs are increasing the cost of imported feed ingredients and trace minerals for livestock and poultry feeds. Business and customer concerns over additional cost risk due to additional tariffs.”
US services sector records strongest rise in business activity in year-to-date
Encouraging economic news from the US: America’s service sector grew at a faster rate last month.
The latest poll of purchasing managers from S&P Global has found that business activity in the services sector increased at the sharpest pace in the year-to-date amid a solid and accelerated expansion in new business.
S&P Global adds:
Companies responded to higher workloads by hiring additional staff, albeit only modestly. Meanwhile, tariffs continued to add to inflationary pressures, resulting in faster increases in both input costs and output prices.
Its services PMI Business Activity Index rose to a seven-month high of 55.7 in July, up from 52.9 in June, showing faster growth.
Google outlines latest step towards creating artificial general intelligence
Dan Milmo
Google has outlined its latest step towards artificial general intelligence (AGI) with a new model that allows AI systems to interact with a convincing simulation of the real world.
The Genie 3 “world model” could be used to train robots and autonomous vehicles as they engage with realistic recreations of environments such as warehouses, according to Google.
The US technology and search company’s AI division, Google DeepMind, argues that world models are a key step to achieving AGI, a hypothetical level of AI where a system can carry out most tasks on a par with humans – not just individual tasks such as playing chess or translating languages – and potentially do someone’s job.
DeepMind said such models would play an important role in the development of AI agents, or systems that carry out tasks autonomously.
“We expect this technology to play a critical role as we push toward AGI, and agents play a greater role in the world,” DeepMind said.
There’s been disruption at London’s Heathrow Airport today, after a key road tunnel was closed.
Passengers hoping to get away on their summer break faced delays after the Central Terminal Area tunnel to Terminals 2 and 3 is was closed.
Heathrow blamed a technical issue, and urged passengers to use public transport to Terminal 5, where train services were available to all other terminals.
The closure lead to heavy queues on the roads leading to Heathrow…..
…and chaotic scenes inside the airport.
Utter chaos again at Heathrow… the tunnel is closed, the carpark buses dropping everyone at T4/5, the underground packed with no air it feels like… awful 😭 pic.twitter.com/6Il6bBQlPm
— Kaylie Kay 📚✈️ (@kayliekaywrites) August 5, 2025
Heathrow says that the road tunnel to Terminals 2 and 3 has now reopened, but warned that there is still congestion at the airport, and so they recommend allowing extra time for your journey.
US trade gap narrows
The US trade deficit with the rest of the world has narrowed, as the rush to import goods into America ahead of Donald Trump’s tariffs ended.
The US’s goods and services deficit dipped to $60.2bn in June, down $11.5bn from $71.7bn in May.
This decline was due to a narrowing in the US goods deficit, while its services surplus grew a little.
Imports into the US fell by $12.8bn to $337.5bn in June, while exports dipped by $1.3bn to $277.3bn.
Harry Chambers, assistant economist at Capital Economics, explains:
The narrowing of the trade deficit was mainly due to a normalisation in pharmaceutical imports and while exports appeared weak, this was primarily due to a fall in gold exports. The big picture is that, despite June’s fall, imports aren’t collapsing and are roughly in line with their levels last year. That said, with export orders weak, it seems likely that exports will struggle over the coming months.
Trump says new semiconductor tariff plan coming as soon as next week
Showing his inate ability to commit news, Donald Trump revealed during today’s CNBC interview that he will unveil new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week.
He told the “Squawk Box” show that an announcement will come “within the next week or so,” saying:
“We’re going to be announcing on semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category, because we want them made in the United States.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has also said recent falls in energy prices could pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war in Ukraine.
In his inerview with CNBC, Trump said:
“If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people.
If you get energy down, another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice because his economy stinks.”
Brent crude is curently trading at $67.82 per barrel, down 1.35% today, down from over $76 per barrel a year ago.
Trump: Looking at four candidates for Fed chair
Donald Trump has revealed he is considering four candidates — including former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett — to become the next head of America’s central bank.
In an interview with CNBC, Trump said:
“I think I say Kevin and Kevin, both Kevins are very good, and there are other people that are very good too.”
Current Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s term expires next May.
Trump also revealed that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told him he did not want to be nominated to replace Powell at the Fed, as he wants to stay in his current role.
Neil Woodford is also facing calls for his CBE to be revoked.
The Woodford Campaign Group and Transparency Task Force have repeated their request for Mr Woodford’s CBE to be forfeited now that the Financial Conduct Authority’s investigation has been completed.
More than 500 people have so far signed a petition drawn up by the Woodford Campaign Group calling for the forfeiture.
In an open letter to Sir Chris Wormald, chairman of the Honours Forfeiture Committee at the Cabinet Office, Andy Agathangelou, who founded both campaign groups, said:
“This scandal is obviously a matter of great public interest – hundreds of thousands of people have been directly impacted by it, many having lost life-changing amounts of money.
Swiss president to fly to Washington to talk tariffs
Trade war news: Swiss president Karin Keller-Sutter and business minister Guy Parmelin will fly to Washington on Tuesday, the government said, to try to avoid the 39% tariffs announced by President Donald Trump on exports to the United States.
The pair will “facilitate meetings with the US authorities at short notice and hold talks with a view to improving the tariff situation for Switzerland,” the government said.
The trip comes after Keller-Sutter was accused of mishandling a vital phone call with the White House, leading Trump to hit Switzerland with a shock 39% export tariff.
Over on Wall Street, construction and mining equipment company Caterpillar has missed second-quarter profit expectations.
Caterpillar’s adjusted profit per share in the second quarter of 2025 fell to $4.72, down from $5.99 in Q2 2024.
The drop in earnings was due to a fall in profit margins. Sales and revenues for the second quarter of 2025 dipped by 1% to $16.6bn,
UK minimum wage may need to rise by over 4% in 2026
Britain’s main minimum wage rate will probably need to rise by around 4.1% next year to £12.71 an hour to keep up with the government’s goal for it to match two thirds of median earnings, according to the body which sets the rate.
The Low Pay Commission said today the final figure for the National Living Wage could range between £12.55 and £12.86 an hour.
The commission is due to provide a firm recommendation to the government by the end of October. The national living wage is currently set at £12.21 for those aged 21 and over.
