Tesla claims it didn’t actually sell 8.6K cars in three days, its employees were simply submitting rebate applications for EVs that had already been sold
- Tesla sold 8,653 cars in three days, claiming $30M in rebates just before the deadline.
- Canada froze the rebates pending an investigation into whether Tesla gamed the system.
- Tesla says these were backlogged orders, not a shady practice, and threatens legal action.
Well, that took a minute, didn’t it? We’re talking about Tesla‘s response to the accusations that it sold a suspiciously huge number of cars in Canada right before the country’s EV rebate program was about to end. Critics and officials question if these were actual sales and whether the company was just gaming the system instead.
So what exactly happened in Canada? In early March, it came to light that four Tesla stores sold 8,653 cars in just three days and claimed C$43.1 million (US$30M) in rebates. This means that each store sold an average of 30 Teslas per hour, 24 hours a day, even when they were supposedly closed, for this three-day period. And if you believe that, I know someone who has a bridge to sell you.
Tesla Claims It Was All Legal, Officials Should Know Better
However, according to Electrek, in a letter dated March 28, Tesla’s director of sales and service for Canada, Fereshteh Zeineddin, says that those filings were normal and that Transport Canada, the government department responsible for the incentive program, should know better.
More: Tesla Accused Of Gaming Canada’s EV Rebate Program After 4 Stores Sold 2 Cars Per Minute Wiping Out $43M In Grants
He explains that many of these rebates were for cars that were already sold but dealers hadn’t simply filed for them yet. Thus, according to the EV maker, it wasn’t really a shady practice on Tesla’s part – just a case of its staff getting their priorities straight as the electric vehicle subsidy program was about to end. The company says that backlogged files were allowed anyway, so it did nothing wrong. Furthermore, these weren’t money that would end in Tesla’s pockets; rather, as per the program, dealers would offer the incentive to buyers and then get reimbursed by the government.
Frozen Rebates Must Be Paid, Or Else…
Tesla also took issue with Canada’s Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland ordering the rebates to be frozen “in order to fully examine each claim individually and determine whether all are eligible and valid,” as she told the Toronto Star. It adds that, due to this investigation, its employees are viewed negatively by the public and have been subjected to verbal abuse and harassment, and if Transport Canada doesn’t resume payments, it may pursue legal action.
Until the investigation is over, we have no way of knowing whether Tesla is telling the truth or not so, until then, it is presumed innocent until proven guilty. It is worth noting, however, that according to the National Post, Tesla deliveries in Canada plunged some 70 percent between December 2024 and January 2025, which makes this sudden surge peculiar. And if we had to guess, the huge drop in sales and the harassment incidents might be the result of Elon Musk getting increasingly political, not just in the US but wherever he sees fit, and not caused by Transport Canada’s investigation.
Bonus Irony: Musk’s Take on Canada
The irony is that Musk, who by the way has a Canadian passport, wrote on X that “Canada is not a real country” when his new best pal, and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, suggested it was annexed and became America’s 51st state.
Having lived in Canada from 1989 until 1992, when he moved to the US, we guess the richest man in the world knows better than most of us (Canadian citizens and residents excluded) whether it’s a real country or not. What’s indisputably real is that its government has serious doubts about whether Tesla is actually entitled to that C$43.1 million – and it is determined to find out.
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