Oil companies and automobile manufacturers, especially General Motors which owned the patent jointly filed by Kettering and Midgley, promoted the TEL additive as an inexpensive alternative superior to ethanol or ethanol-blended fuels, on which they could make very little profit.
Ropné společnosti a výrobci automobilů, zejména GM, kteří vlastnili patent (podaný Ketteringem a Midgleym), usilovně prosazovali olovnaté palivo jako alternativu k ethanolu nebo ethanolové směsné pohonné hmoty, na nichž mohli mít jen velmi malý zisk.