Looks like Tesla’s reliance on government subsidies has finally hit a wall in Canada.

After Tesla requested reimbursement for an unprecedented 8,669 Canadian EV rebates in just three days, the Canadian government froze Tesla’s rebate payments and paused all future eligibility for federal rebates while tariffs are in place.

Read the full details and the fallout here.

  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 days ago

    Ever since this broke I’ve been so curious to see which are dealers with bad, rushed paperwork before a deadline that they let pile up before mass-submitting, and how many are outright fraud. Neither would surprise me at this point.

    • HeadfullofSoup@kbin.earth
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      4 days ago

      One store in ontario had 1200 in one day and a store in quebec 4000 during a week-end so i vote for fraud

      It would not surprise either if a lot of the swastikar vandalism was assurance fraud too

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        That’s the number they sent, we don’t know the sales dates on those so maybe they were just super bad at submitting the paperwork…

        • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
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          4 days ago

          The rebate is quite large. $5,000 or thereabouts in most cases. The company also fronts that money to the customer, and then claims reimbursement from the government.

          Have you ever known any business to delay in collecting $5,000, particularly when it is sitting as a liability on their books until they collect? Much less to do that more than 8,000 times?

        • orcrist@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          And risk losing the money? No, my friend. Safer to assume it’s fraud.

    • argh_another_username@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      Probably all of them are fraud. A friend bought a Tesla last year and they said Tesla DOESN’T do the paperwork for the EV rebate. The client must go after it and pocket the money. All other dealers do the job for you.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        4 days ago

        So maybe they found a way to identify customers that didn’t, and submitted the paperwork in order to get the rebate for themselves?

          • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
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            4 days ago

            For my money, that’s the most probable reasoning for why Tesla tried this.

            Falls under the “cool motive, still fraud” umbrella, but it makes the most sense.

            • jonne@infosec.pub
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              4 days ago

              Yeah, it’s definitely some kind of fraud, although they might have found a loophole that wasn’t in the spirit of the law but still legal.

              • orcrist@lemm.ee
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                3 days ago

                Well now they are not getting the money. So their loophole did not work so well.

  • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    “This is totally just an accident. We use AI to calculate our sales and apply that to the rebate program. So it’s totally not criminal fraud or anything. Thanks.”

  • Adulated_Aspersion@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Hear me out:

    Everyone seems to think that Musky is the richest person on the planet, when that “fact” is based on his leveraged net worth, not liquid assets.

    What if Musk was trying to do some shady garbage in / to Camada to pull a few million out to float him for a few months. This could be similar to what a normal person might do with a few hundred dollars from an ATM.

    • FiskFisk33@startrek.website
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      3 days ago

      Nah, a democratic nation has to follow its own laws. It looks much better if they revoke it with proof after due process.

    • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
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      4 days ago

      Something tells me those funds are frozen in the way that stuff north of the permafrost line gets frozen and never gets unfrozen

      Easier to stave off a lawsuit if you don’t say what you mean, you just do what you mean, you know?

      • nodiratime@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Nice image, but has the flaw that the Permafrost is melting around the globe at increasing rates.

  • misteloct@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Trump and Musk are only able to purge existent voters. Purging nonexistent Tesla owners is an unreasonable ask!!!

  • Derpenheim@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    Congrats Muskrat, not everywhere loves it’s billionaires like the US. Get fucked

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    4 days ago

    Yeah but like if they find it was fraud are they going to do anything about it? More than a slap on the wrist? Like, jail time? A public hanging? Probably nothing, as usual. but I can hope.

  • dan@upvote.au
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    4 days ago

    This makes me wonder how much they’ve gotten away with in other countries. Who knows if the sales numbers they’ve been reporting are even accurate?

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Tesla’s stock is an irrational, overinflated hype stock with an absurd price-to-earnings ratio and a large-shareholder CEO who was being investigated by the SEC before he dismantled it.

      Considering that the stocks are used as his personal piggybank and his history of totally-not-market-manipulation-because-there-are-no-charges, I would be more surprised if the sales numbers are accurate.