[khanak]

Transport Canada is looking into Tesla after it made a suspicious number of rebate requests on the last days of the Canadian EV incentive program.

A single dealership in Quebec would have delivered about 4,000 vehicles in a single weekend, which is physically impossible.

The Canadian government announced in January that it was running out of money for its up to $5,000 incentive program for the purchase of electric vehicles.

It was supposed to end in March, but in mid-January, the government started to warn consumers and dealers that money was running faster than planned and that it would need to end it by the end of January.

Unsurprisingly, it created a rush for people to take delivery by the end of the month.

Tesla is the most popular electric vehicle brand in Canada, so it’s not surprising that it benefited most from the temporary surge in demand. However, now that the numbers are coming in, some are becoming suspicious of some of the numbers Tesla is claiming.

According to a report from the Toronto Star, four Tesla locations claimed to have sold 8,653 electric vehicles in the last three days of the rebate. They filed for $43.1 million in rebates — more than half of the $71.8 million in remaining funds.

Tesla’s location in Quebec City alone filed more than 2,500 rebates in a single day and 4,000 over the weekend. Considering the location can hold only a few hundred cars and that the company needs to have delivered the vehicle to file the rebate, people are suspicious that Tesla could have actually delivered the cars when it says it did.

The suspicious surge in filings from Tesla has resulted in other dealers being stuck without rebates.

The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) surveyed its dealers, and it found that they are stuck with 2,295 unreimbursed rebates worth about $10 million.

CADA spokesperson Huw Williams commented on the situation:

“These dealers in good faith gave customers the money for a program that is always refunded. They shouldn’t be left making a payment on behalf of the Government of Canada.”

CADA has been pleading its case with Ottawa for the last few weeks and it is now going public through the Toronto Star report to put pressure.

Following the report, Transport Canada is reportedly looking into the situation. They wrote to CADA:

“This report is unacceptable and I am asking the department that is responsible for administering this program to provide me with detailed and complete information.”

Williams claimed that “Tesla gamed the system.”

Terry Budd, who owns 8 dealerships in Ontario, also doesn’t believe Tesla could have delivered that many vehicles:

“There’s no way they delivered or sold that many cars in a weekend. They cleared everyone else out.”

The Canadian dealers are still waiting to see if they will be reimbursed on the roughly 2,000 EVs that they delivered.

Electrek’s Take

Tesla was obviously going to be the one to deliver the most EVs amid the surge to take advantage of the incentive. There’s no doubt about that.

The automaker is also used to delivery rushes, which generally happen at the end of quarters, but it can certainly muster up more capacity at the end of January also.

However, I have to admit that I also found those numbers suspicious. 2,500 vehicles in a single day and 4,000 in a weekend at Tesla’s single location in Quebec City? It makes no sense.

Maybe Tesla delivered more vehicles in the last few weeks and filed the rebates in big batches, but even then, it would raise eyebrows.

Source - https://electrek.co/2025/03/07/tesla...-ev-incentive/

[khanak]

Interesting video on the subject

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idxuc0F5EWk

[sarav100]

Canada freezes Tesla rebate payments, excludes company from future programs

VANCOUVER — Payments for Teslas under Canada’s electric vehicle rebate program have been frozen pending a government investigation into whether they’re valid.

Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland says in a statement that eligibility criteria for future incentive programs for zero-emission vehicles will be changed to ensure Teslas will not be eligible “so long as the illegitimate and illegal U.S. tariffs are imposed against Canada.”

Freeland says she made the order when she became minister earlier this month, but it is being publicized in the midst of a federal election where Canada’s relationship with the United States has become a central issue.

Tesla is run by U.S. presidential adviser Elon Musk.

Freeland says no payments will be made until the government is confident that the claims are valid.

The Toronto Star reported that Tesla filed thousands of rebate claims in the final days of the program, the equivalent of selling two cars a minute, 24 hours a day.

Source