Between January 10 and January 12, after being warned that an EV rebate program was running out of funds, Tesla dealerships in Canada managed to claim 8,669 individual iZEV EV rebates, or about $43 million CAD in incentives. That’s a staggering number of sales to log in a single weekend, about 1.5 sales per minute. Let’s dig into the numbers.

  • Lung
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    -10319 hours ago

    I think for those that wanted Teslas, they realized they have to buy them before the tariff war gets too hot. So ironically there’s a surge of purchases

    Ideology aside, they make some very good cars, and I don’t blame people for buying them

    • @perfectly_boiled_pizza
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      3115 hours ago

      Tesla has always had problems with quality. In an attempt to increase profit and decrease production time Tesla has sacrificed quality control.

      Many customers feel the need to do it themselves. So many do this that there are even people making money of it.

      Tesla has always been like this. That’s why they have mostly been cheap compared to competition.

    • @Hobbes_Dent
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      7717 hours ago

      Canadians are furious, but even considering an uptick to catch rebates this is pure fraud:

      Let’s run the numbers:

      • 8,669 iZEV rebates over three days claimed by Tesla dealerships.
      • Mostly claimed by four Tesla locations.
      • Tesla dealerships in Canada are open from 10 AM to 6 PM.
      • That works out to 722 rebates per primary dealership per day.
      • Which equals 90 iZEV rebates per hour.
      • Or 1.5 Tesla sales per minute.

      Let’s take a step back. Two Tesla sales every 90 seconds? That’s absurd. A good car salesperson might close two deals in two hours, not per minute. And that’s in a normal sales environment… not one where every eligible car has to be processed for a government rebate at the same time.

      • @neatchee
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        13 hours ago

        Is it possible some of these were liquidations or inventory sell-off or something? As a data person my initial assumption would be a few bulk purchases throwing this calculation out of whack

        I could see some private dealership figuring out a way to buy the vehicles and resell them as a hard-to-get item later

        Edit: down votes for asking a question? Y’all are weird. I’m not even saying it’s not fraud.

        • @[email protected]
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          15 hours ago

          If by “private dealership” you mean the Tesla dealerships themselves. “Buy” their own cars, pocket the rebate, sell the car later.

          You know.

          Fraud.

        • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝
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          1115 hours ago

          Do non-consumer purchases count as eligible for the rebate if they plan to resell?

          • @neatchee
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            413 hours ago

            I have no idea. That’s why I was asking 🤷

            • KayLeadfootOP
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              12 hours ago

              So, the data has a “commercial” or “consumer” flag, Canada is apparently quite sensible and thought one step ahead of the shady things auto dealers might try - so we’d be able to see if it was a wholesale sort of deal, I think.

              It wasn’t, all the sales I saw were consumer flagged.

    • @frickineh
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      6118 hours ago

      Even if there was a real run on Teslas, the numbers they claim to have sold are impossible. This is some sloppy ass fraud. The only way they could have “sold” that many was as fleets and if they did, I’d bet everything I own that it was money laundering.

      • KayLeadfootOP
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        2417 hours ago

        Canadian government thought of that. The sales are marked as either personal or commercial in the database. All the sales I saw were personal.

    • @[email protected]
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      2317 hours ago

      It was out of 4 dealerships. It’s impossible to sale that many cars in three days from 4 dealerships, no matter how many people want to buy them. Plus no way was Canadian demand that high over a $5k rebate.

    • Pennomi
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      2819 hours ago

      Should be easy to verify those sales if they are legitimate.

    • @[email protected]
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      1518 hours ago

      Ideology aside, they make some very good PR

      They immolate people per vehicle sold than the ford pinto. The have absurd numbers of points of failure; until a few years ago each door handle had over a dozen sensors and wires, all exposed to moisture and thermal cycling, and cost $500 each. They use a few hall effect sensors now, but still cost >$500.

      • @shalafi
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        017 hours ago

        Yes, Tesla’s safety record is horseshit, but:

        They immolate people per vehicle sold than the ford pinto.

        The report is that Teslas have the potential over time to be worse. 27 people died by fire in Pintos due to gas tank failure, pretty slim numerator vs. the denominator of millions sold, but it was made out to be a big deal at the time. I remember, I was there.