So I’m cruising through the rules surrounding Canada’s iZEV program and I can’t find any requirement that the vehicle be “delivered”, which is contrary to all of the media coverage. It’s even described on the official Transport Canada website as a “Point of Sale” program. Delivery at the time of sale doesn’t seem to be a requirement.

Further if you look at the process, another place this is referenced as a “Point of Sale or Lease” program, and the e-forms the end purchaser IS involved with this. A dealership can’t file a re-imbursement claim without the end purchaser being involved.

The number of vehicles does seem high but only in the context of individuals however the iZEV program allows for Fleet Sales and some entities could claim up to 50 vehicles under the program. Now all of a sudden what would need to be 8,000 individual sales could theoretically be as low as 160.

Add it all together and it seems believable that Tesla slammed a bunch of legitimate sales into the system at the last minute. After reviewing the process and the forms it seems a LESS believable that Tesla made up all of these sales as the documentation requirements mean they’d certainly be caught the minute anyone checked.