Tesla wants US automakers to quickly pay higher fines if their vehicles use too much fuel. The maker of electric cars is putting pressure on the US government to make rules that were relaxed by former President Donald Trump stricter again. It would make Tesla a lot of money and hit competitors in their wallets.

Tesla's cars are electric and use no fuel. This allows the group to sell rights to other producers, who can thus lower the average fuel consumption of their fleet and reduce fines. Selling those rights is less profitable due to the current relatively flexible rules, says Tesla. Other automakers have said an increase in fines would cost them at least $1 billion annually in fines and rights purchase costs.

Since last year, the European Commission has also introduced rules whereby the average emissions of all new cars from a manufacturer must be below a certain limit. For the Volkswagen brands, for example, the requirement was over 99 grams of CO2 per kilometer last year, which was exceeded by an average of 0,5 grams. That resulted in a fine of probably more than 100 million euros. Tesla had a deal with Fiat-Chrysler in Europe and thus also earned money from the emission rules here.

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