LONDON, June 26 -- For most of the past decade, British carmakers and their government counterparts promised that the electric tipping point was coming. Last month, it quietly arrived, buried in rows of registration data: for the first time in history, more new battery electric vehicles were sold in the United Kingdom over a twelve-month period than new petrol cars. And almost immediately, the same industry that helped create the moment began pushing to change the rules that made it possible.

A Carbon Brief analysis of Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders figures, published on Thursday, shows that in the twelve months to May 2026, British buyers registered 516,490 new battery electric vehicles against 504,010 new petrol cars. The m...