Tesla Claims It Sold 8,653 Cars In Three Days But The Canadian Government Doesn’t Buy It

Whenever the price of something is expected to rise dramatically on a certain predetermined date, a bull rush is practically inevitable. Just look at how enthusiastic Quebecois motorists helped Canada run out of federal EV rebate money early. It turns out, though, that drivers weren’t the only ones going all-in. Tesla claims to have sold a ridiculous number of cars right at the end, a number so preposterous the Canadian government is looking into it.

On Jan. 13, Canadian federal EV rebates hit pause due to insufficient funding, but not before Tesla reportedly made a break for it. The Toronto Star reports that the automaker claimed 8,653 rebate-eligible sales in 72 hours. That’s just over two cars every minute around the clock, which doesn’t sound particularly feasible. The rebates claimed by Tesla over this period total up to $43.1 million, leading Huw Williams of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association to comment that “Tesla had a run on the bank.”

So how might this have happened? Well, let’s start by taking a closer look at the mechanics of the federal rebate process in Canada. Each individual could only claim one rebate per year, and each business could only claim ten rebates per year, unless they were an approved car-sharing fleet.

What’s more, each person or business would have to be vetted for eligibility through a government portal, meaning we likely aren’t looking at a case of dumping thousands of cars into a small handful of shell companies. If someone were to hypothetically illegally rebate-wash 8,653 in-stock cars in one weekend, they would’ve had to set up 866 registered companies and bluff about who’s at the head of each one, as organizations that share ownership all get lumped together for a 10-rebate cap across the whole spread.

Also, when you think about it, it doesn’t seem like there’d be a huge incentive for Tesla to dump 8,653 registered, newly-used cars on the Canadian market all at once. After all, increased used supply can do some not-so-great things to the residual value of a product, although there are definitely other things that can affect product desirability. Tesla certainly seems to be experiencing some of those other things right now, especially as sales have been cratering in Europe and public sentiments toward the company are getting a bit fiery.

Instead, here’s a more plausible scenario: What if a significant chunk of these cars were sold before that weekend, and many of them just got buried under a “we’ll get around to it” mentality that piled up at the end? After all, Canadian retailers aren’t actually refunded until final documents are submitted, it wouldn’t take long to attach digital copies of sales or lease agreements and rebate forms to the government’s portal, and procrastination’s a hell of a thing.

The potential problem there is that Transport Canada only holds rebate eligibility applications valid for 90 days, so if any submitted applications fall outside of that window, that may be legally considered fraud. As such, it’s not surprising to see the Canadian government is investigating the situation. When a Transport Canada employee tells the Toronto Star straight-up, “Tesla didn’t sell those cars that weekend,” it sounds like something might be afoot. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the Canadian government finds, won’t we?

Top graphic image: Tesla

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