Tesla Canada suing Ontario government for selectively denying customer incentives

Tesla Canada is suing the Ontario provincial government forllowing the cancellation of EV incentives for buyers of the all-electric Tesla vehicles. The PC govermnent under Doug Ford shut down numerous progressive EV and Hydrogen vehicle incentives. The move was done to ostensibly bring down the price of fuel in the province.

The province claims cancelling the cap-and-trade program will help it achieve its goal of bringing gas prices down by 10 cents a litre and cutting costs for Ontarians by $1.9 billion per year. This move cuts incentives wirth thousands of dollars to Canadians opting to buy an electric car, hybrid or hydrogen car.

Tesla Canada, which sells the most premium and luxurious EVs, feels it has been singled out. The company says customers of competing EV and hybrid car manufacturers can still avail of on substantial rebates on electric car purchases.

The cancelled program offered rebates of up to $14,000 on qualifying vehicles, so long as they were under $75,000. Tesla Canada claims the government "deliberately and arbitrarily" excluded its customers, while providing no warning or the chance to offer any input.

"The Minister of Transportation's decision suddenly left hundreds of Tesla Canada's Ontario customers in the unfair position of no longer being eligible for the rebate they had expected to receive when they ordered their vehicles," the lawsuit states.

Tesla vehicles are usually ordered years in advance and sight unseen. Many buyers factored the incentives and discounts into their Tesla purchase. Tesla customers usually have to pay a reservation fee worth thousands of dollars just to get in the queue. Tesla is notorious for missing delivery deadlines, mostly because it has had trouble scaling production. The company has also been knocked for sub-standard after sales service, usually requiring months to act on a part replacement or a recall. Tesla customers put up with all this in order to enjoy the promise of a sleek, high-tech zero carbon footprint motoring.

The Ontario government's cancellation of incentives pulls support for public EV chargers nad makes considering the move to an EV, PHEV or hybrid less attractive to Canadians. Many consider it to be a step back.