Tesla Model 3 too expensive to qualify for Canada’s federal rebate

The Tesla Model 3 will no longer top the list of Canada’s most rebated electric car.

Transport Canada says the popular battery-operated vehicle was removed from the eligibility list for the federal zero-emission vehicle rebate in late November.

The carmaker just raised the base price for the Model 3 to $59,990, well above the $45,000 qualifying price to get the $5,000 rebate.

In 2019 the company lowered the price to just under $45,000 to make it eligible for the rebate.

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Since the rebate program began in May 2019, nearly 35,000 Teslas qualified for it, more than twice as many as the second-place Toyota Prius. More than half a billion dollars has been spent on EV rebates in the last three years, of which more than one-third went to Teslas.

B.C. has capped its provincial rebate rate at vehicles with an MSRP of more than $55,000. The CleanBC Go Electric Vehicle Rebate Program will run until $94 million provincial funding is exhausted.

New ZEVs accounted for 8.4 per cent of B.C.’s total new vehicle registrations during this period – making B.C. (on a per capita basis) the provincial leader. In Quebec, ZEVs accounted for 6.8 percent of new registrations, a 5.9 per cent increase from 2019.