This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
Elon Musk’s Tesla raked in $1.79 billion in regulatory credit sales last year, according to a recent SEC filing, as it cashed in on rivals that failed to sell enough electric vehicles to meet emissions regulations .
Tesla earns regulatory credits by making and selling electric vehicles. It can then sell them to other automakers that haven’t produced enough electric vehicles to meet emissions standards imposed by regulators in the United States, Europe and China.
It’s turned out to be big business for Tesla, which doesn’t reveal who it sells the credits to.
Bloomberg, which initially reported the filings, calculated that the company has grossed nearly $9 billion from the sale of regulatory credits since 2009.
This may come as much of a surprise to Tesla as anyone else. The company expected revenue from regulatory credits to dry up as other automakers ramped up electric vehicle production, with then-CFO Zachary Kirkhorn warning as much in a 2020 earnings call.
“We do not operate the business under the assumption that regulatory credits will contribute significantly going forward,” Kirkhorn told investors, according to Bloomberg.
“It will continue for a period of time, but eventually this flow of regulatory credits will taper off,” he added.
However, this scenario has largely failed to materialize, with Tesla’s earnings from selling regulatory credits up slightly from last year, when it earned $1.776 billion.
The Elon Musk-run automaker continues to dominate the U.S. electric vehicle market, even as it is starting to lose ground to other competitors.
However, many of its biggest rivals are scaling back their ambitious electric vehicle plans, with Ford postponing $12 billion in investment and General Motors reintroducing hybrids into its all-electric lineup.
Right now, the biggest threat to Tesla’s dominance comes from China, with BYD overtaking the automaker as the world’s top seller of electric vehicles earlier this year.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment outside of normal business hours.