this post was submitted on 02 May 2025

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154

Tesla threatens Canadian government with legal action (www.thestar.com)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by dwazou@jlai.lu to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 141 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lol, they are under investigation for fraud because of this.

[+] ikidd@lemmy.world -71 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

Like, fuck Tesla and Musk in particular, but they paid out the rebates to the customers as they bought vehicles over the year, and put all the rebate requests in on their behalf just before the deadline. This wasn't fraud in any concievable manner.

Edit: holee fuk, people are big mad at not blindly condemning one company that does the same thing all the other dealerships do. I look forward to Tesla going tits up, but this is a nothingburger.

[–] UnderFreyja@lemmy.ca 82 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

They're under investigation because it is believed they boosted sales in their books to get the rebates for cars that were not actually sold....

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 33 points 2 months ago

That sounds like a fraud scheme.

[–] argh_another_username@lemmy.ca 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Considering Tesla did not asked for the rebates themselves, but it was something the buyers had to do, I think it’s fraud.

[+] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Not necessarily, dealerships could take care of it and just give it to the customers in the meantime, a bit like a 0% loan that is being refunded by the government. That's how pretty much all federal rebates for EV cars were handled because it's a much less painful experience for the consumers to not have to deal with the paperwork and waiting for the money.

[–] argh_another_username@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And that’s fraud. I think it’s exactly what they wanted, to ask for as many as they could so they could sell the cars for less than the competition.

[+] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works -6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

No it's not, it's exactly how all dealerships handled the federal rebate, the only weird thing is Tesla not claiming them regularly (from what they're saying) hence the investigation, but otherwise it's perfectly normal and legal that the dealerships were taking care of the trouble for their clients.

Down vote all you want, it was still the way it was done and is why all other dealerships were pissed when they couldn't submit their paperwork for their recent sales because Tesla submitted enough to empty the pot.

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Could you show where other dealers have done this?

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

When the news came out all the other dealers were complaining that they couldn't submit the paperwork for the rebate.

It's not the clients that pay the bill and then get a cheque back, it's included on their bill when they purchase the car and in the loan they take if they need one.

It's not Tesla pretending to have purchased cars and submitting the paperwork under false client names, it's them submitting the paperwork for cars they (allegedly) sold to get the refund for the rebate they (allegedly) passed on to the client. As if they had accumulated the paperwork for months without submitting it to the government to get the refund they're owed for a rebate they gave their clients.

https://insideevs.com/news/752820/tesla-accused-of-gaming-rebates-canada/

Dealerships provide rebates of up to $5,000 at the point of sale and then the government reimburses them.

[–] npcknapsack@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 months ago

If that's what happened, they should be able to prove that and the money will go to them. But I've certainly heard stories, and I look forward to the results of an investigation.

[–] YesButActuallyMaybe@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Please explain how that makes sense: customer buys car, Tesla gives them rebate, Tesla doesn’t collect rebate for months and just sits there with no money. Then tesla decides to call in rebates all at once when it’s announced that they run out?

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

It was also one location. So did no other location do rebates?

[–] Greg@lemmy.ca 53 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Why would Tesla threaten to sue instead of just waiting for the result of the investigation?

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 79 points 2 months ago

Because they know they're guilty as fuck

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 29 points 2 months ago

Because they're led by a petulant man-baby who thinks he's above the law.

[–] Mpatch@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Because if they get the money now. Good luck getting it back/ persuing any other action. If canada holds the money now and they are guilty. There is no money period.

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 52 points 2 months ago

Good luck with that.

[–] onTerryO@lemmy.ca 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A different, non-paywalled link:

https://www.autoblog.com/news/tesla-threatens-lawsuit-after-canada-freezes-30m-in-ev-rebates

[–] Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank you. Sharing paywalled links amounts to nothing more than advertising.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Install Firefox, when there is a paywall, hit the button near the end of URL for reader view. Paywall is gone

[–] onTerryO@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does that work for you on this particular link? I tried that, but it seems thestar is doing some trickery to make reader view not work.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Actually for this one I didn't need reader mode, o have no script add on and that blocks a lot. In Vanadium browser I can just click the X at the top if the popups

[–] wirebeads@lemmy.ca 37 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Canada should just outright ban Tesla at this point. It’s head honcho is a South African Nazi who’s on record calling Trudeau Governor and saying Canada isn’t a country.

There’s a lot of other EV and automotive companies we can give our money to.

Sucks for Tesla, but Tesla sucks.

[–] Charlxmagne@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

His grandad was litch exiled from Canada for publicly supporting Nazi Germany.

[–] CanadianCarl@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Elon has a Canadian citizenship from his mother. We should revoke it from him.

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

Can't without allowing for the disenfranchisment of other canadians.

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Super funny to me that they believe this is going to work out well for them. The math don't math and they were caught red handed.

[+] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world -7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

There's no math to math if it's a backlog that a few dealers were told to do all the paperwork for.

It either is, or isn't and it's going to be easy to prove either way.

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is amazing how productive they can be with almost 9,000 in three days eh?

[+] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world -11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

9000 what? You still seem to think they did 9000 sales in 3 days but that's not what supposedly happened. They could be months of sales across the whole country handled by these 3 stores in a last minute push.

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

9000 things you would be able to define if you read. Someone was nice enough to post an article without a paywall. I suggest you start there before responding to me again. :)

[+] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world -11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Tesla only did 9000 pieces of paper work across 3 locations in 3 days.

Anyone business could do that, it's not hard.

Edit: It's not even in dispute that they did 9000 pieces of paperwork in 3 days. Math checks out!

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Tesla only did 9000 pieces of paper work across 3 locations in 3 days.

Anyone business could do that, it’s not hard.

Edit: It’s not even in dispute that they did 9000 pieces of paperwork in 3 days. Math checks out!

It is in dispute because I said "almost 9,000" when in fact it is 8,653 as per the article you didn't read which I told you to read before responding and now you have egg on your face. Shame.

[+] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world -7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Dude, you need to get a life lol. I'm just using your number.

Its a claimed backlog. Since English must not be your first language if you didn't understand the article let me help you out.

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

back·log

/ˈbakˌlôɡ,ˈbakˌläɡ/

noun

noun: backlog; plural noun: backlogs

an accumulation of something, especially uncompleted work or matters that need to be dealt with.
"the company took on extra staff to clear the backlog of work"

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for demonstrating you aren't worth further time.

Take care!

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world -5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Of course, my pleasure

Tesla employees were simply processing backlogged paperwork before the program expired, Zeineddin wrote in the letter.

Maybe the definition i gave not having the past tense backlogged confused you...

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well if Tesla employees said it it must be true!

Go back to Reddit if you want to simp for a Nazi's crappy car company.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world -5 points 2 months ago

It either is, or isn’t and it’s going to be easy to prove either way.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 months ago

Tesla can threaten us with friggin' right off, Barb!

[–] CircaV@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 months ago

Tesla can fuck right off.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

Oh yeah that’s gonna make Canadians love you even more Elon

[–] ferretfacefrankburns@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago

I hope Tesla loses

[–] Bonus@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago

Which is it, Leon? Lawlessness or laws which benefit you? If you think foreign governments are going to enforce financial penalties against themselves to benefit you, it sounds like you're all in for there being laws again. This is in direct conflict with literally everything you're doing to destroy America and every other sovereign democracy.