This one is a bit complicated; ongoing news story.
Back in January, the federal government announced it was ending rebates for EVs sold in Canada.
Tesla apparently relies on government rebates as a major part of its income.
For three days in January, Tesla claimed sales of over 8,000 vehicles nationwide, and claimed the rebates, amounting to over $43 million.
Eyebrows were raised:
The combination of the two might have caused an uptick in sales, but 8,600 vehicles in four locations across a three-day period is a lot. One location sold 1,200 vehicles only on January 11th, and another in Quebec City sold more than 4,000 that weekend.
Transport Canada began an investigation, and has frozen the payment of the rebates.
Tesla says that the program allowed backdating of sales, and they’re owed the rebates.
Now it appears that Tesla may sue the federal government for the rebates, saying that backdating is perfectly legal.
Curiously, Tesla may try to rely on the caretaker convention and say that the feds aren’t allowed to make major changes to policy during an election, which is goofy. Caretaker convention doesn’t mean that the government stops enforcing its existing laws, only that no major policy changes are made by the government during the writ period.
But as always with these sorts of jerks, they champion one thing when they’re on one side of the transaction, and the exact opposite when on the other side of the same or similar transaction.
It’s “Heads I win; tails you lose” all the way down.
So in Canada the manufacturer (Tesla) gets the rebate not the purchaser? Or doe Tesla credit the rebate on the purchase price up front then get the actual rebate?
In the US if the rebate didn’t come through, most of the time the buyer would need to refinance to make the dealer whole. The rebate is part of the down payment.
For all brands except Tesla this is the dealers problem. The manufacturer is not involved in the transaction, though sometimes the manufacturer’s finance arm may be (e.g. Honda Motor Credit LLC or some such).
Do you have any more on this? I clicked to the secondary articles in your cites, and other than one mention of concerns about whether Tesla had prior information about the ending of the EV incentives, it didn’t indicate anything about the specific backdating issue. I don’t doubt you, but was wondering exactly how backdating would be legal and apply to this particular event. I mean, yes, there was information on a webinar but is that legally binding, when apparently the written law was more clear?
Of course, I also look forward to our admired Canadian neighbors mentioning, in passing, that the new government has placed a brand new 50% tariff (or more!) on Tesla going forward, as part of the endless trade war that Trump has started and in no way to punish Tesla’s efforts to game the system.
But I have such unspeakable admiration for you! Oh well, I guess like you I’ll have to wait for some more detailed reporting. I hate it when you actually take the time to read the links, and the secondary links, and it still really doesn’t say more than the opening paragraph did…
I have to wonder why Tesla would delay claiming rebates and then suddenly claim a bunch of them all at once? In the world of money, getting the money sooner is always better (unless you’re earning interest or other income with it). Just sitting around and saying “ho hum, one of these days we should fill out the paperwork for the several thousand cars we’ve sold” seems counterintuitive.
