BYD is making its presence felt in the UK after registrations jumped more than fivefold last month. The EV leader registered over 3,000 vehicles in May, overtaking Tesla, and is quickly closing in on its full-year sales. With its most affordable EV hitting the market, BYD is expected to gain even more ground this year.

BYD UK registrations top 3,000 in May 2025

According to the latest data from the Society of Manufacturers and Traders (SMNT), BYD registered 3,025 vehicles in the UK last month, up 407% from just 596 in May 2024.

Tesla, on the other hand, had just 2,016 vehicles registered in the UK last month, 36% fewer than it did in May 2024.

Through the first five months of the year, BYD has quickly closed the gap with Tesla, registering 14,807 vehicles. That’s up 570% from just 2,207 last year. Tesla has registered 15,002, 7.8% fewer than it did last year.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Overall, new vehicle registrations rose 1.6% in the UK last month to 150,070 units. It was the UK’s best May sales month since 2021.

Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) saw the highest growth with nearly 17,900 registrations, more than double the number from last year.

Registrations of fully electric vehicles (EVs) rose 25.8% to 32,728 units. Although EV market share rose to 21.8% in May, up from 17.6% last year, registrations are still well below the UK’s mandated level. Through the first five months of the year, EVs hold a 20.9% market share, which is far off the 28% target set by regulation.

Heavy discounts helped drive registration growth, which SMNT said is “unsustainable for a sector already facing multiple cost pressures.”

BYD already registered more vehicles in Europe than Tesla in April, and its best-selling (and cheapest) EV is just arriving.

Last month, BYD launched the Dolphin Surf, the European version of its top-selling Seagull EV in China, which retails for under $10,000 in its home market. The company sold over 60,100 Seagull models in China last month alone.

The standard range model starts at around 23,000 euros ($26,000) with a WLTP driving range of 220 km (137 miles). A longer-range variant is available, starting at 24,990 euros, and has a 507 km (315 miles) range.

Electrek’s Take

With new entry-level models, luxury vehicles, midsize SUVs, and more rolling out, will BYD surpass Tesla this year in the UK and Europe? It looks likely.

S&P Global Mobility forecasts that BYD’s sales in Europe will double this year to around 186,000. By 2029, its sales could reach around 400,000. Even with tariffs, the report notes that the Dolphin Surf’s “pricing strategy ensures competitiveness in the EU.”

The low-cost EV is likely to play a significant role as BYD emerges as a genuine threat in the UK and Europe. We will learn more soon. Check back soon for the latest updates.

Tesla is caught in a legal fight in which it admitted that it would “suffer financial harm” if its self-driving crash data would becomes public, but it’s not for the reason you are thinking.

Tha automaker is currently in a legal battle against The Washington Post, who is requesting data regarding Tesla crashes related to its ADAS systems (Autopilot and Full Self-Driving).

The U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires automakers to report all crashes that involved ADAS systems.

Tesla crashes represent the vast majorities of crashes reported to NHTSA, but we don’t have much data on those crashes because, as we previously reported, Tesla abuses NHTSA’s confidential policies to have most of the data related to the crashes redacted.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

The Post is suing Tesla and NHTSA to have them disclose the data.

In a new filing, Tesla argued that it “would suffer financial and economic harm if the requested information is disclosed.”

Tesla claims that competitors could use the data to assess Tesla’s progress with ADAS systems:

For the reasons explained in Tesla’s opening motion and the Eddie Gates Declaration, the disclosure of the requested information could foreseeably result in various types of harms to Tesla. Public release of ADAS hardware and software versions will allow competitors to, among other things, assess the efficacy of a given version of hardware or software; calculate the number of crashes per the different software and hardware systems, and draw conclusions as to Tesla’s rate of progress.

The automaker cited Eddie Gates, Director for Field Reliability Engineering at Tesla, to support its argument.

Gates wrote:

(a) see the processes by which Tesla identifies and examines crash incidents; (b) gain insights into how Tesla learns and evolves through data collection; (c) track the pace of improvement in ADAS features over time; (d) draw conclusions as to the effectiveness of one ADAS version over another; (e) draw conclusions about or attempt to copy Tesla’s internal processes; (f) reveal how and in what circumstances Tesla gathers and learns from telematic or other data relating to crash events; (g) provide insights into how Tesla’s software and vehicle technology works; and (h) ascertain the strength and weaknesses of Tesla’s features and use that knowledge to build or improve their own features and systems.

In short, Tesla’s argument for not making public details of its vehicles crashing while its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving is that competitors could potentially improve their own systems by learning which versions of Tesla’s systems are involve in more crashes than others.

Lawyers for the Washingtop Post counter the argument by pointing out that the version of Tesla’s ADAS software and hardware can’t be kept private, considering the drivers themselves have access to that information within their own vehicles.

Electrek’s Take

Let’s be real. If the information is disclosed, the only real change is that the public would gain a better understanding of crashes involving Tesla Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. That’s it.

Now, if that happens, there are a few things that could ensue, like more media reports on Tesla crashes, people involved in those crashes using the data in legal actions against Tesla, and yes, potentially competitors using the data to gain a better understanding of its system, but that wouldn’t be my top worry.

Even if they did that, it would only mean that the NTSHA crash reporting would result in making ADAS systems safer. Isn’t that the goal?

The fact that Tesla has gone out of its way to not release any data regarding its self-driving effort should be a real red flag to anyone interested in the effort.

Global energy investment is on track to hit a record $3.3 trillion in 2025, according to the new International Energy Agency’s (IEA) annual World Energy Investment report, even as the world navigates economic turbulence and rising geopolitical risks.

The lion’s share of that money – about $2.2 trillion – is heading toward clean technologies. That includes renewables, nuclear, grids, battery storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency, and electrification. It’s twice the amount going into fossil fuels.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol says countries are working to insulate themselves from future shocks in the energy sector. “Amid the geopolitical and economic uncertainties that are clouding the outlook for the energy world, we see energy security coming through as a key driver of the growth in global investment.”

China has cemented its status as the world’s top energy investor, spending nearly as much as the US and EU combined. In 2015, it barely edged out the US. Today, it’s pulling far ahead, especially in clean energy. Over the past decade, China has boosted its share of global clean energy investment from 25% to nearly 33%, thanks to massive spending on solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, EVs, and batteries.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Solar is once again the star. Investment in both rooftop and utility-scale solar is expected to hit $450 billion this year, more than any other energy tech globally. Battery storage is also surging, projected to hit $65 billion in 2025. Nuclear is trending upward too, with capital flows rising 50% over five years to about $75 billion.

The global energy mix continues to shift. In 2015, fossil fuel investment outpaced electricity spending by 30%. But this year, electricity investments, which include generation, grids, and storage, are expected to be 50% higher than what’s being spent on oil, gas, and coal.

But not everything is trending in the right direction. Grid investments, at $400 billion a year, aren’t keeping up with the pace of new generation and electrification. That’s a red flag for electricity security. The IEA warns that grid spending needs to catch up fast, but bottlenecks like permitting delays and tight supply chains for cables and transformers are slowing progress.

China and India also continue to invest in coal. In 2024, China began construction on nearly 100 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants, pushing global coal project approvals to their highest levels since 2015.

Meanwhile, oil investment is expected to dip 6% this year – the first drop since the COVID crash in 2020. That’s mostly due to less spending on US tight oil – oil extracted using fracking, which is processed into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels. On the flip side, investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) is booming, especially in the US, Qatar, and Canada. Between 2026 and 2028, LNG capacity is set to see its largest ever capacity growth.

One of the report’s most troubling takeaways: Africa is being left behind. Despite accounting for 20% of the world’s population, the continent attracts just 2% of global clean energy investment. Overall energy investment in Africa has fallen by a third in the past decade. The IEA says public finance needs to scale up fast to help unlock private capital and close the gap in developing economies.

The bottom line: Clean energy is surging, solar continues to lead, and China is dominating global spending. But if grid upgrades don’t catch up and the investment gap in the Global South isn’t closed, energy access and climate goals could fall behind.

Read more: 1 in 4 cars sold in 2025 will be EVs, and that’s just the beginning

If you live in an area that has frequent natural disaster events, and are interested in making your home more resilient to power outages, consider going solar and adding a battery storage system. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*