The growing adoption of electric vehicles (EV) alone isn’t what charged Tesla’s revenue generation last year. In fact, carbon credit sales jumped, giving the automaker a boost while also highlighting the potential growth opportunities in the carbon credit market.
According to a Carbon Credits article, carbon credit sales have been a revenue generator for Tesla for the past eight business quarters. The electric automaker sells carbon credits to the other automotive manufacturers, giving them the ability to continue operations if they don’t meet emissions standards set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
2022 was a difficult year for not only the markets, but for the economy in general. With consumers pinching their pennies amid rising inflation, one of the last purchases on their minds was probably a new car.
As such, selling carbon credits was probably a good hedge for Tesla if automotive sales were lagging last year. It’s a strategic move, allowing for the company to draw revenue from other sources aside from selling vehicles.
“Tesla’s carbon credit sales are making headlines again as it reached a new record in 2022,” the article noted. “The company reported that Q4 carbon credit sales jumped 47% year over year.”
Investing in California’s Carbon Credit Market
Tesla’s revenue generation model, particularly with respect to meeting emissions standards in a strict California regulatory framework, highlights opportunities in the carbon credit market. With California aggressively pushing to reduce its carbon output, investors will want to look at state-specific opportunities in the state that can capitalize on this initiative.
One such opportunity to consider is the KraneShares California Carbon Allowance ETF (KCCA). The fund provides targeted exposure to the California Carbon Allowances (CCA) cap-and-trade carbon allowance program.
KCCA is benchmarked to the IHS Markit Carbon CCA Index, which tracks the frequently traded CCA futures contracts. The fund is a part of the KraneShares suite of carbon ETFs and provides exposure to an investment vehicle that capitalizes on the price of carbon and hedges risk while supporting goals aligned with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives.
The index measures a portfolio of futures contracts on carbon credits issued by the CCA and only includes futures with a maturity in December in the next year or two while using a wholly owned subsidiary in the Cayman Islands to prevent investors from needing a K-1 for tax purposes. Furthermore, CCA provides investors with portfolio diversification with exposure to assets that don’t typically correlate to the broader stock market.
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