- Tesla vehicles no longer qualify for “green” rebates in British Columbia
- It’s due to a combination of rebate program changes plus federal tariffs on EVs from China
- But they’re still eligible for rebates in other provinces, and for the federal incentive
Drivers in British Columbia who want a Tesla will no longer get some cash back from the provincial government. While the Model 3 and Model Y previously qualified, Tesla has switched up the versions it offers in Canada, and their starting prices now put them over the “green” vehicle rebates offered under the CleanBC plan.
The saga of Tesla’s prices against the province’s rebates has been going on for a while, but as Automotive News Canada recently reported, all of these factors came together in mid-October to make Tesla’s MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) on all its vehicles too high to qualify for the rebate of up to $4,000.
The MSRP rebate threshold was previously $55,000, but in June it dropped to $50,000 – because, the government said, “electric vehicle sales (are) increasing faster than anticipated and currently on record levels.” It also reclassified station wagons and SUVs as cars, where the $50,000 limit applies. Minivans, “standard” pickup trucks, and passenger vans are eligible up to a starting price of $70,000, but SUVs like the Model Y are no longer in that category.
Tesla did sell its Model 3 in a rear-wheel-drive (RWD) short-range version that started at $49,990 – and that model had been $1,000 higher, but Tesla dropped it by a grand last June in direct response to B.C. lowering the rebate threshold.
But that short-range RWD Model 3 is manufactured in China, and Tesla pulled it from the Canadian market in October due to federal tariffs of 100% on EVs coming to Canada from China, up from 6.1% previously. Instead, the Model 3 is now sold in three versions in Canada – long-range RWD, long-range all-wheel drive (AWD), and performance AWD. The starting price for the lineup is $54,990, and while Tesla was obviously willing to previously swallow $1,000 to qualify, it doesn’t look like it’s going to absorb almost $5,000 to do so this time around.
The Model Y is also now available only in long-range RWD or AWD, or performance AWD, due to the tariffs that also knocked the base made-in-China trim off Tesla’s platter for Canada. That long-range RWD, now the least-expensive, starts at $59,990 – and that would have qualified if SUVs had remained in CleanBC’s “Larger Vehicles” category, but it is now considered a car and with that $50,000 threshold.
The Model 3 and Model Y were Tesla’s only eligible vehicles under the B.C. program, but the report notes that of approximately 27,000 provincial rebates issued in 2023, those two Tesla vehicles accounted for 49.2% of them.
Both of them still qualify under the federal government’s rebate of up to $5,000 per vehicle. The Model 3 qualifies under the car threshold of $55,000, and up to $65,000 on higher-priced trims. Unlike with the B.C. program, SUVs qualify as larger vehicles, alongside station wagons, minivans and vans, pickup trucks, and special-purpose vehicles; and so the Model Y slips in under that category’s $60,000 threshold, with upper trims eligible up to $70,000. Both are also eligible under some other provinces’ rebates, including in Quebec, where buyers can receive up to $7,000 for them.
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