Late Stage Capitalism

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Tesla's dirty little secret: Its net profit doesn't come from selling cars (archive.is)

submitted 4 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 years ago (1 children)

What does regulatory credit mean here? What exactly is Tesla doing here? I don't understand finance capital much.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 years ago* (last edited 4 years ago) (1 children)

A regulatory credit is essentially "points" you get for emitting low or no pollution. The more of these credits you have, the more pollution you're allowed to make without facing trouble, I think (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Tesla has been getting these credits for free from the government because their whole schtick is making "environmentally clean electric cars". So since they're getting them for free, they've just been selling them to other manufacturers. Instead of making a profit from creating cars, they're getting most of it from selling credits they got for free, essentially making money for no reason.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 years ago

according to the article:

Eleven states require automakers sell a certain percentage of zero-emissions vehicles by 2025. If they can't, the automakers have to buy regulatory credits from another automaker that meets those requirements -- such as Tesla, which exclusively sells electric cars.

Tesla has so many of these credits because the cars are electric. Now if the manufacturing process as well as the source of the energy were taken into account...