Tesla Claimed 8,669 Canadian EV Rebates as the Program Ran Out of Funds… That’s 1.5 Sales Per Minute
Tesla Claimed 8,669 Canadian EV Rebates as the Program Ran Out of Funds… That’s 1.5 Sales Per Minute
Between January 10 and January 12, after being warned that an EV rebate program was running out of funds, Tesla dealerships in Canada managed to claim 8,669 individual iZEV EV rebates, or about $43 million CAD in incentives. That’s a staggering number of sales to log in a single weekend. Meanwhile, ...
Between January 10 and January 12, after being warned that an EV rebate program was running out of funds, Tesla dealerships in Canada managed to claim 8,669 individual iZEV EV rebates, or about $43 million CAD in incentives. That’s a staggering number of sales to log in a single weekend, about 1.5 sales per minute. Let's dig into the numbers.
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I think for those that wanted Teslas, they realized they have to buy them before the tariff war gets too hot. So ironically there's a surge of purchases
Ideology aside, they make some very good cars, and I don't blame people for buying them
Canadians are furious, but even considering an uptick to catch rebates this is pure fraud:
Let’s run the numbers:
- 8,669 iZEV rebates over three days claimed by Tesla dealerships.
- Mostly claimed by four Tesla locations.
- Tesla dealerships in Canada are open from 10 AM to 6 PM.
- That works out to 722 rebates per primary dealership per day.
- Which equals 90 iZEV rebates per hour.
- Or 1.5 Tesla sales per minute.
Let’s take a step back. Two Tesla sales every 90 seconds? That’s absurd. A good car salesperson might close two deals in two hours, not per minute. And that’s in a normal sales environment… not one where every eligible car has to be processed for a government rebate at the same time.
With Tesla, you submit your order online. I highly doubt that's where these numbers come from but it is possible that the orders were placed online and routed through sales center in the major population areas.
Is it possible some of these were liquidations or inventory sell-off or something? As a data person my initial assumption would be a few bulk purchases throwing this calculation out of whack
I could see some private dealership figuring out a way to buy the vehicles and resell them as a hard-to-get item later
Edit: down votes for asking a question? Y'all are weird. I'm not even saying it's not fraud.
It's not for "asking a question"
- I suspect the professionals looking into this potential fraud are going to think of these things.
- when and how hard you choose to play devil's advocate says something about you.
- whether well intentioned or not this is Musk apologia at best, and excuses/misinformation at worst. I think our Transport Minister does basic diligence before asking for an investigation and having the story in the media.
We're all used to these "centrist" / "just asking questions" types and how they only crawl out of their holes to play devil's advocate for fascists, it's tired.
Lol check my post/comment history and see how fucking wrong you are
Literally caucused for Bernie.
Everyone is so ready to pick up a pitchfork that you fail basic reading comprehension.
I'm literally just trying to think of ways they could have EXECUTED this. I said nothing of the legitimacy, fairness, justice, or legality of the behavior
It is the bread and butter of capitalist fucks to operate just barely within the letter of the law.
This was never apologia and your (and others) penchant for picking a fight is toxic as fuck.
Fair enough, I'm not going to do a background check on every poster but I see that I was lumping your response in with the originator of the thread and could have given yours a more charitable interpretation.
I'm just a journalist/comedian :) I got no dog in this fight, other than that the appearance of corruption in public programs is newsworthy.
If I'm ever unfairly positive about Tesla, do let me know. Most Tesla fans (and assorted grifters who grift in the same circles) say I'm actually the opposite, that I'm shield-biting Tesla hater, probably a paid Anti-Elon shill and maybe a $TSLA shortseller. They feel that way enough to send me threats from time to time. Neither take is true, but it's funny that I'm getting shot at by both sides.
If you find my stories interesting, you can do me a solid by sharing them on any subreddit or Fedia instance that you think would find them interesting. This publication is a couple weeks old, and that helps me get traction, it's wild that this story is only getting coverage by Canadian outlets.
Sorry I've been imprecise again, I meant the root comment that's from Lung.
Ope, shit, I jumped the gun. My bad!
If by "private dealership" you mean the Tesla dealerships themselves. "Buy" their own cars, pocket the rebate, sell the car later.
You know.
Fraud.
Do non-consumer purchases count as eligible for the rebate if they plan to resell?
Don't think so, but if I give you $100-$500 to buy a car on paper and sell it back to me less the rebate, that shouldn't be illegal.
That would literally be fraud.
Also stupid because the sales tax would be more than the rebate I imagine.
I have no idea. That's why I was asking 🤷
So, the data has a "commercial" or "consumer" flag, Canada is apparently quite sensible and thought one step ahead of the shady things auto dealers might try - so we'd be able to see if it was a wholesale sort of deal, I think.
It wasn't, all the sales I saw were consumer flagged.
Tesla has always had problems with quality. In an attempt to increase profit and decrease production time Tesla has sacrificed quality control.
Many customers feel the need to do it themselves. So many do this that there are even people making money of it.
Tesla has always been like this. That's why they have mostly been cheap compared to competition.
Even if there was a real run on Teslas, the numbers they claim to have sold are impossible. This is some sloppy ass fraud. The only way they could have "sold" that many was as fleets and if they did, I'd bet everything I own that it was money laundering.
Canadian government thought of that. The sales are marked as either personal or commercial in the database. All the sales I saw were personal.
Should be easy to verify those sales if they are legitimate.
It was out of 4 dealerships. It's impossible to sale that many cars in three days from 4 dealerships, no matter how many people want to buy them. Plus no way was Canadian demand that high over a $5k rebate.
Ideology aside, they make some very good PR
They immolate people per vehicle sold than the ford pinto. The have absurd numbers of points of failure; until a few years ago each door handle had over a dozen sensors and wires, all exposed to moisture and thermal cycling, and cost $500 each. They use a few hall effect sensors now, but still cost >$500.
The overall fire risk for EVs, (including most Teslas) is pretty low, but the Cybertruck is a huge outlier here.
I'm not talking about all EVs, just Teslas. Most EVs don't have a tendency to lock the occupants inside after a bad crash.
Here's a random twitter user compiling news stories of Tesla deaths that prove it's at least double the Ford Pinto: https://xcancel.com/ton_aarts/status/1593557636695445505
And what one guy on twitter can find is hardly exhaustive.
Yes, Tesla's safety record is horseshit, but:
They immolate people per vehicle sold than the ford pinto.
The report is that Teslas have the potential over time to be worse. 27 people died by fire in Pintos due to gas tank failure, pretty slim numerator vs. the denominator of millions sold, but it was made out to be a big deal at the time. I remember, I was there.