from Hacker News

Canada investigates whether Tesla helped itself to a subsidy-fueled sales boom

by debo_ on 3/31/25, 10:25 PM with 61 comments

• by FireBeyond on 3/31/25, 11:00 PM

  > Tesla sold about 8,600 cars in three days at four separate stores in Canada, or roughly one every two minutes per showroom, in January.

  Right. If, and only if, the stores were open 24/7.

  Most are open 8 to 10 hours a day.

  Tesla is claiming with a straight face that these three stores sold a new car EACH, every FIFTY SECONDS from opening to closing for three days straight.

  > Moreover, according to Quebec-based Motor Illustrated, Tesla accounted for 89% of all claims filed during that period.

  I think the word for this starts with "F" and ends in "raud".

  > "No payments will be made until we are confident that the claims are valid," said Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland in a statement to the Toronto Star.

  I'm sure in the US we'd happily pay Tesla and maaaaaaaybe claw it back several years later. Maybe.

• by janalsncm on 3/31/25, 11:43 PM

  Not sure I fully understand the accusation. 8600 sales in a weekend is a lot for a physical store, but these happened online. What about the other stores, were they also high? It is possible this was legit but there should be an investigation. Preventing waste, fraud and abuse.

  Real purchases require real people, so simply asking who the buyers are should sort it out. If employees were filling out the forms and “buying” then it should be fairly straightforward to figure out.

• by ChrisArchitect on 4/1/25, 1:21 AM

  Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43294281

• by mikestew on 3/31/25, 11:02 PM

  Tesla sold about 8,600 cars in three days at four separate stores in Canada, or roughly one every two minutes per showroom, in January.

  I mean, it’s going to take more than two minutes just to convince the finance guy that if he mentions “paint protection” one more time, you’re walking out.

• by elevatedastalt on 3/31/25, 11:13 PM

  Doesn't Tesla let you order a car online? Does it need people to physically visit a store and spend an hour doing paperwork?

• by pseudo0 on 3/31/25, 11:53 PM

  This story is hilarious. Yes, lots of people will want to buy Teslas when the government announces that the $5,000 subsidy is about to end. The other car manufacturers are just mad that they lost out due to their antiquated sales process. If they had direct purchase via online ordering, maybe they would have gotten a larger slice of that remaining subsidy money?

• by gruez on 3/31/25, 11:32 PM

  >In January, four showrooms in three major cities managed to sell 8,600 cars in the span of just a weekend following news that the country would no longer help fund part of the purchase price for a new electric car under its iZEV program.

  This is supposed to be suspicious? What's next? It's "suspicious" that Amazon had 5x the orders in the weekend after the fourth thurdsay in November? There's a pretty straightforward explanation: the government announced the subsidies were going to end, so all the potential buyers sitting on the fence or planning to purchase some time in the future made the leap and purchased immediately, causing a spike.

• by Freedom2 on 3/31/25, 11:33 PM

  To be fair, it's a product directly endorsed by the President of the United States of America. As he said, "we have to celebrate [Musk]", especially when there's an "illegal boycott" as stated by that president. I'd be very surprised if a US president supported any company that engages in fraud, it's just unbecoming of the position.

• by Mountain_Skies on 3/31/25, 11:07 PM

  The numbers are highly suspicious, but the article doesn't seem to point to any actual specific accusation of wrongdoing. Were the cars sold to people in other countries and thus not eligible? Sold to corporate buyers and they're not eligible? The number of vehicles sold at the dealerships doesn't pass a sanity check but it's also unclear what is believed to have happened that was illegal. Were online sales ineligible for the subsidy so they were routed through dealerships? There appears to be smoke here but it's unclear where the fire is located, if it exists at all.