this post was submitted on 02 May 2025

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154

Tesla threatens Canadian government with legal action (www.thestar.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/canada

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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[–] HikingVet 141 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Lol, they are under investigation for fraud because of this.

[+] [email protected] -71 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Like, fuck Tesla and Musk in particular, but they paid out the rebates to the customers as they bought vehicles over the year, and put all the rebate requests in on their behalf just before the deadline. This wasn't fraud in any concievable manner.

Edit: holee fuk, people are big mad at not blindly condemning one company that does the same thing all the other dealerships do. I look forward to Tesla going tits up, but this is a nothingburger.

[–] UnderFreyja 82 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They're under investigation because it is believed they boosted sales in their books to get the rebates for cars that were not actually sold....

[–] HikingVet 33 points 1 month ago

That sounds like a fraud scheme.

[–] argh_another_username 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Considering Tesla did not asked for the rebates themselves, but it was something the buyers had to do, I think it’s fraud.

[+] [email protected] -14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Not necessarily, dealerships could take care of it and just give it to the customers in the meantime, a bit like a 0% loan that is being refunded by the government. That's how pretty much all federal rebates for EV cars were handled because it's a much less painful experience for the consumers to not have to deal with the paperwork and waiting for the money.

[–] argh_another_username 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And that’s fraud. I think it’s exactly what they wanted, to ask for as many as they could so they could sell the cars for less than the competition.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

No it's not, it's exactly how all dealerships handled the federal rebate, the only weird thing is Tesla not claiming them regularly (from what they're saying) hence the investigation, but otherwise it's perfectly normal and legal that the dealerships were taking care of the trouble for their clients.

Down vote all you want, it was still the way it was done and is why all other dealerships were pissed when they couldn't submit their paperwork for their recent sales because Tesla submitted enough to empty the pot.

[–] HikingVet 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Could you show where other dealers have done this?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

When the news came out all the other dealers were complaining that they couldn't submit the paperwork for the rebate.

It's not the clients that pay the bill and then get a cheque back, it's included on their bill when they purchase the car and in the loan they take if they need one.

It's not Tesla pretending to have purchased cars and submitting the paperwork under false client names, it's them submitting the paperwork for cars they (allegedly) sold to get the refund for the rebate they (allegedly) passed on to the client. As if they had accumulated the paperwork for months without submitting it to the government to get the refund they're owed for a rebate they gave their clients.

https://insideevs.com/news/752820/tesla-accused-of-gaming-rebates-canada/

Dealerships provide rebates of up to $5,000 at the point of sale and then the government reimburses them.

[–] npcknapsack 17 points 1 month ago

If that's what happened, they should be able to prove that and the money will go to them. But I've certainly heard stories, and I look forward to the results of an investigation.

[–] YesButActuallyMaybe 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Please explain how that makes sense: customer buys car, Tesla gives them rebate, Tesla doesn’t collect rebate for months and just sits there with no money. Then tesla decides to call in rebates all at once when it’s announced that they run out?

[–] Auli 2 points 1 month ago

It was also one location. So did no other location do rebates?

[–] Greg 53 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Why would Tesla threaten to sue instead of just waiting for the result of the investigation?

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 month ago

Because they know they're guilty as fuck

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago

Because they're led by a petulant man-baby who thinks he's above the law.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Because if they get the money now. Good luck getting it back/ persuing any other action. If canada holds the money now and they are guilty. There is no money period.

[–] DrBob 52 points 1 month ago

Good luck with that.

[–] wirebeads 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Canada should just outright ban Tesla at this point. It’s head honcho is a South African Nazi who’s on record calling Trudeau Governor and saying Canada isn’t a country.

There’s a lot of other EV and automotive companies we can give our money to.

Sucks for Tesla, but Tesla sucks.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

His grandad was litch exiled from Canada for publicly supporting Nazi Germany.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Elon has a Canadian citizenship from his mother. We should revoke it from him.

[–] HikingVet 1 points 1 month ago

Can't without allowing for the disenfranchisment of other canadians.

[–] onTerryO 37 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A different, non-paywalled link:

https://www.autoblog.com/news/tesla-threatens-lawsuit-after-canada-freezes-30m-in-ev-rebates

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thank you. Sharing paywalled links amounts to nothing more than advertising.

[–] BCsven 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Install Firefox, when there is a paywall, hit the button near the end of URL for reader view. Paywall is gone

[–] onTerryO 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Does that work for you on this particular link? I tried that, but it seems thestar is doing some trickery to make reader view not work.

[–] BCsven 2 points 1 month ago

Actually for this one I didn't need reader mode, o have no script add on and that blocks a lot. In Vanadium browser I can just click the X at the top if the popups

[–] Arkouda 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Super funny to me that they believe this is going to work out well for them. The math don't math and they were caught red handed.

[+] [email protected] -8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

There's no math to math if it's a backlog that a few dealers were told to do all the paperwork for.

It either is, or isn't and it's going to be easy to prove either way.

[–] Arkouda 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is amazing how productive they can be with almost 9,000 in three days eh?

[+] [email protected] -12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

9000 what? You still seem to think they did 9000 sales in 3 days but that's not what supposedly happened. They could be months of sales across the whole country handled by these 3 stores in a last minute push.

[–] Arkouda 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

9000 things you would be able to define if you read. Someone was nice enough to post an article without a paywall. I suggest you start there before responding to me again. :)

[+] [email protected] -12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Tesla only did 9000 pieces of paper work across 3 locations in 3 days.

Anyone business could do that, it's not hard.

Edit: It's not even in dispute that they did 9000 pieces of paperwork in 3 days. Math checks out!

[–] Arkouda -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Tesla only did 9000 pieces of paper work across 3 locations in 3 days.

Anyone business could do that, it’s not hard.

Edit: It’s not even in dispute that they did 9000 pieces of paperwork in 3 days. Math checks out!

It is in dispute because I said "almost 9,000" when in fact it is 8,653 as per the article you didn't read which I told you to read before responding and now you have egg on your face. Shame.

[+] [email protected] -8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Dude, you need to get a life lol. I'm just using your number.

Its a claimed backlog. Since English must not be your first language if you didn't understand the article let me help you out.

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

back·log

/ˈbakˌlôɡ,ˈbakˌläɡ/

noun

noun: backlog; plural noun: backlogs

an accumulation of something, especially uncompleted work or matters that need to be dealt with.
"the company took on extra staff to clear the backlog of work"

[–] Arkouda 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thank you for demonstrating you aren't worth further time.

Take care!

[–] SplashJackson 22 points 1 month ago

Tesla can threaten us with friggin' right off, Barb!

[–] CircaV 17 points 1 month ago

Tesla can fuck right off.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

Oh yeah that’s gonna make Canadians love you even more Elon

[–] ferretfacefrankburns 7 points 1 month ago

I hope Tesla loses