European carmakers are urging Brussels to ease regulations to help them avoid buying carbon credits from rivals in increasingly large amounts.

As European automakers brace for a possible trade war waged by President Trump, they are working to ward off another threat on their home turf: the prospect of paying hundreds of millions of dollars to Tesla and Chinese competitors muscling in on their core markets.

Under stricter European Union regulations taking effect this year, automakers selling cars in Europe face hefty penalties if their vehicle production fails to meet tough targets for reducing carbon emissions. With demand for electric cars in Europe slumping and manufacturers squeezed by competition from China, automakers, politicians and industry groups are lobbying for relief.

After an industry summit in Brussels Thursday, Ursula Von Der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, acknowledged the challenges that the auto industry faced and pledged that

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