It was also another year of dazzling innovation, with fresh engineering approaches bringing new capabilities to products and systems across multiple industries, from nuclear fusion breakthroughs to personalised medical devices.
As we approach what promises to be another exciting year of ground-breaking engineering, here is a look back at the most-read stories from each month of the PE Weekly newsletter.
January: Trump’s return brings unpredictability – and opportunity
The first of several stories showing the huge influence of American politics on engineering-related industries around the world, this article set out what the return of Donald Trump to the US presidency could mean for engineering.
From tariffs to treaties, experts told Professional Engineering that Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda would bring unpredictability – and “underlying opportunities” in construction, specialist projects and the space sector.
Almost 12 months later, we are still in the relatively early days of Trump’s second presidency, but many policies are already having considerable impact – none less than the sweeping tariffs that were eventually introduced, which have reshaped international supply chains and increased prices for US consumers.
February: Chernobyl’s protective dome damaged by drone attack
It was a nightmare scenario – a drone strike on the protective dome separating the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site from the rest of the world. The incident, which the Ukrainian government blamed on Russia, punctured the roof of the giant shell housing a concrete ‘sarcophagus’ within. This piece explained how the structure was thankfully able to survive the attack, despite its designers not expecting to contend with drone strikes.
As the war continues, the risk is not over. Repeated attacks and heavier munitions could cause wider damage and kick radioactive dust into the atmosphere – “effectively turning the whole enclosed facility into a big dirty bomb,” warned Lynette Nusbacher, former senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Recent work by the International Atomic Energy Agency found that the structure lost its “primary safety functions” as a result of the February strike, requiring “essential” repairs for long-term safety.
March: Tesla falls behind amid protests and recalls
Even the most news-averse people could hardly avoid mentions of Elon Musk in early 2025 as the Tesla CEO led the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’, acted as a senior adviser to Trump and repeatedly courted controversy online, largely on his own X platform.
Discontent around those actions had started to affect the electric vehicle (EV) pioneer by March, with anti-Tesla protests, boycotts and vandalism spreading. Sales plunged in Europe, with a 49% drop in January and February compared with the same period last year.
“The Venn diagram of people that love Elon and people who buy EVs has very little overlap. That is not great for Tesla,” said Jay Nagley from automotive consultancy Redspy.
April: Connected Energy eyes EV batteries for renewable energy storage
As the EV industry matures, millions of batteries – each filled with valuable materials – are approaching their end of life. Recycling is complicated, potentially hazardous and often inefficient, however.
The energy system, meanwhile, has some challenges of its own. Transitioning from grids built around large, centralised power stations to a cleaner but more fragmented system makes distribution and control more difficult.
Newcastle firm Connected Energy plans to tackle those challenges simultaneously, as set out in this article. Using second-life EV batteries in stationary storage, the company is planning utility-scale deployments to capture surplus green electricity when it is generated and dispatch it when needed.
May: HS2 boss backs ‘laser-guided’ reset to end cycle of bad news
As the railway industry celebrated its 200th anniversary, 2025 saw some significant milestones for the UK’s biggest infrastructure project. Nearly all of the tunnelling is now completed for HS2, while in April engineers completed the UK’s heaviest ever bridge slide. It has not all been plain sailing, however.
HS2 Ltd CEO Mark Wild gave his assessment after five months in the job at the High Speed Rail Group’s annual conference, where he said the programme had become “discontinuous and uncoordinated”. Pledging a “laser-focused” reset, he set out plans to get the project back on track.
“The point of the reset is to form a reliable route to the finish, at a time and cost the government could rely on… The output for me is to produce the schedule that everybody can be productive,” he told Professional Engineering. And will HS2 ever reach Crewe or Manchester? “I don’t have that job,” he answered.
June: Government backs big – and small – nuclear projects
In a big year for nuclear power, some of the most significant news came in June. “Because it is the right choice for bills, the right choice for jobs and the right choice for growth, this government is investing in the biggest rollout of nuclear power for half a century,” announced chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Spending Review.
That rollout included long-awaited funding for Sizewell C, with £14.2bn allocated to build the nuclear power station in Suffolk. The facility will generate enough electricity to power 6 million homes, the chancellor said, supporting more than 10,000 jobs in the process.
Reeves also announced investment of more than £2.5bn in a new small modular reactor (SMR) programme, with Rolls-Royce picked as the preferred partner. Wylfa in North Wales has since been confirmed as the site for the country’s first SMR power station.
July: Driverless car ambitions face reality of UK roads
Self-driving cars are just around the corner, with pilots of autonomous taxi- and bus-like services due to start in the UK in spring 2026. Driverless transport could make the roads safer and add billions of pounds to the economy, the government claims – but it could be a bumpy ride, according to this story from July.
Unlike some countries where autonomous fleets are already operating, experts warned that the UK’s winding and weather-beaten road network could expose stubborn technical, regulatory and social hurdles. “The technology is only going to make sense in some particular contexts,” said Jack Stilgoe, an expert in autonomous vehicles at University College London.
A higher number of walkers and cyclists on the roads compared with the US, where many self-driving companies are based, could pose another challenge.
August: We get the inside story of the car that can drive upside down
It is not easy to achieve a genuine engineering first, particularly in a crowded and innovation-saturated sector. Cotswolds hypercar company McMurtry managed it in 2025, however, when they drove a prototype upside down.
The stunt was a dramatic demonstration of the Spéirling’s Downforce-on-Demand fan system, which also enabled record-breaking speeds around the Top Gear track and the fastest hill climbs at Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Laguna Seca Corkscrew.
Despite successful tests in the run-up to the jaw-dropping inversion, company director Thomas Yates told Professional Engineering he got “very nervous” as they approached “the opportunity to destroy a hugely valuable and important prototype”: “If you mess it up and you smash up millions of pounds’ worth of invaluable prototype… then all of a sudden it looks like you’ve done a very silly thing.”
September: The world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor takes shape at Iter
The world’s largest nuclear fusion demonstrator started to seriously take shape in the south of France this year. We visited Iter to speak to the engineers and metrology experts building the giant facility.
Precision is key and the stakes could not be higher. The goal is, in the words of chief scientist Alain Becoulet, “creating a Sun here on planet Earth”. If the team succeeds, they could transform global electricity production – but if they fail, it might scupper hopes for our most promising power source.
October: F1 teams use 3D printing to win the ‘race between races’
This year’s Formula One championship came to a dramatic end earlier this month as McLaren’s Lando Norris became world champion following a third-place finish in Abu Dhabi. But for engineers, another race starts as soon as a Grand Prix ends. The ‘race between races’ to design, test and install incremental improvements is as fast-paced and competitive as the events themselves, with teams using cutting-edge technology to get ahead of the pack.
In October, we spoke to industrial 3D printing specialist Stratasys about its work with F1 teams including Aston Martin Aramco and McLaren, which also won this year’s Constructors’ Championship.
Additive manufacturing is a major part of teams’ arsenal, explained application engineer James Short. “They‘re able to produce these very large, very smooth wind tunnel test models, so it cuts down the cost and the labour involved,” he said. “With F1, they‘re iterating so quickly that they need to have these tools produce as quickly as possible.”
November: Nuclear Waste Services looks under the Cumbrian seabed
The UK has a mountain of nuclear waste to deal with. Equivalent to 10,000 double-decker buses, it needs safe disposal.
We recently spoke to Nuclear Waste Services about its plans to bury that waste under an area of seabed off the coast of Cumbria. With the entire process due to take roughly 200 years, it is early days for the project – but with new power station projects due to add to the pile, now is the time to prepare.
December: Seashells offer ‘unexpected’ solution to one of construction’s biggest challenges
A potential solution to one of the construction industry’s biggest challenges could be found on shorelines and in restaurant bins around the world, according to this recent story.
Research by the University of East London found that discarded seashells can be transformed into a low-carbon concrete ingredient, potentially cutting significant amounts of carbon emissions from the production of one of the world’s most polluting materials.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.