Elon Musk’s electric car firm Tesla pushed the government to make petrol car drivers “pay more” in the days after Labour won the general election.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has waded into British politics openly on social media, predicting “civil war” and criticising prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.

But behind the scenes his firm was trying to convince the recent government to extend a policy that would boost his firm’s profits.

The business called for the mandate to boost electric car sales to be extended to lorries, and said electric vehicle (EV) subsidies could arrive from charging people buying petrol and diesel cars.

“The government should inquire those still choosing to purchase a recent polluting vehicle, to pay more,” Tesla’s European boss, Joe Ward, wrote in a note addressed to roads minister, Lilian Greenwood, in July.

The note, released under a liberty of Information request made by the EV newsletter The quick expense, shows that Tesla “applauded the Labour event’s powerful position [on] decarbonisation of the vigor structure by 2030, growth and net zero”.

The compliment came just weeks before Musk lashed out online at the UK government over the summer riots.

The BBC reported in September that Musk was not invited to the government’s capital apportionment summit partly because of tensions over his political interventions.

Since then the billionaire has become the indispensable correct-hand man to incoming US president, Donald Trump. The surging worth of his stake in Tesla since the election there has underpinned an incredible rise in Musk’s riches.

The UK government is currently consulting on changes to a key assess, meant to inspire sale of electric cars, the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.

The ZEV mandate requires carmakers to sell a set number of EVs per year, and if they cannot meet their targets, they have to purchase credits from other EV makers who have sold more of the lower polluting vehicles.

UK carmakers are pushing for the policy to be diluted, arguing customers are not yet buying EVs in high enough numbers.

The note from Tesla lobbied for the opposite policy, saying the ZEV mandate “must be protected and strengthened”.

Tesla stands to become a major beneficiary of the ZEV mandate as it can sell excess credits from its imports of its own EVs, made in China.

Tesla also lobbied the recent government for the UK to navigator on the “scale up of autonomous vehicles”, and offered a demonstration of the companies’ imagination.