Sometime earlier this year, a mysterious-sales surge coinciding with suspension of the EV-rebate program occurred inside Elon Musk‘s Tesla operations in Canada. Via Matt St-Pierre in Motor Illustrated:
Over a three-day period, Tesla reported selling 8,600 vehicles at four locations across the country, resulting in $43 million in government rebates. One Tesla location in Toronto reported more than 1,200 sales on January 11 alone, accounting for $4 million in rebates. These figures have raised concerns among industry analysts, who question whether the registrations were legitimate or whether Tesla knew about the rebate program’s impending pause.
Launched in May 2019, Canada’s rebate scheme, known as Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (or “iZEV”) Program, has been a notable success: according to Driving.ca, it powered adoption to “almost 700,000 new electric vehicles in households, and has increased market share of ZEVs—which includes pure battery-electrics as well as plug-in hybrids—to 13.5% nationally.”
Tesla transactions coinciding with the rebate pause raise thorny questions for America’s ally to the north, including if (and how) the carmaker or Elon Musk knew about the pause ahead of time—and if the purchases themselves were legitimate.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
The above-linked clip from CTV News is insightful, and kudos to them for trying to get answers inside a Tesla dealership given Elon Musk’s penchant for blowing off press inquiries. To my eye, though, we must compare and contrast: What were sales figures like prior to this mysterious surge? Did Elmo’s spectacular unpopularity impact Canadian buyers the same way it has, for example, in Europe?
The answer, in short, is complicated. Tesla sales in Canada plummeted 70% from December 2024 to January 2025, but that spectacular drop was felt by other EV carmakers as well, presumably related to the rebate pause. Which means the sales spike stands as an outlier not just to Tesla statistics, but the entire industry as a whole. And the subplot to this apparent-rebate scandal is how a petition is asking country officials to revoke Musk’s Canadian citizenship—signed by more than 360,000 citizens. From National Post:
Launched on Feb. 20, it accuses Musk of acting against Canada’s national interest and undermining its sovereignty. In Canada, citizenship can be revoked only if someone has committed fraud, misrepresented themselves or knowingly hid information on an immigration or citizenship application. Musk was born in South Africa and has Canadian and U.S. citizenship. He acquired Canadian citizenship via his mother, who was born in Saskatchewan.
Of course Elmo being Elmo, he responded in the most-adult way possible: by tweeting, and then deleting, a post claiming “Canada is not a real country.”
The government agency investigating Tesla purchases is Transport Canada, which doesn’t have subpoena power according to my research. But that agency can, apparently, ask for assistance from law-enforcement bodies to compel compliance. It would certainly be illuminating, for example, to see any communications—if they exist—between Musk’s office and local dealerships in the lead-up to the pause in rebates.
I reached out to Transport Canada for comment and will update if and when I hear back.
Story hat-tip to Rob O’Connor on Bluesky
