Several regions, including China, the US and Europe, allow carmakers to comply with emissions regulations by buying "emission permits" from groups selling cleaner cars. Selling "permits" to competitors has been a financial survival strategy for Tesla, accounting for virtually all of the group's profitability, while its core EV business is struggling to make ends meet.

For example, Tesla received $ 518 million from the sale of "permits" in the last quarter, while reporting a net profit of $438 million. During 2020 alone, the company earned about $ 1.6 billion from selling "permits" around the world. Under European emission regulations, carmakers were required to reduce the average CO2 emissions of their car fleets to 95 grams per km by last year, or they faced heavy fines.

Note that all other Tesla "profits" came from crypto scam. and so called "investments" in Bitcoin and alike