Image: Tesla
Internal records suggest federal officials knew funding for Canada’s popular electric vehicle rebate program was nearing exhaustion months before the public was notified in January 2025.
According to documents obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information laws, Transport Canada identified as early as November 2024 that the Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV) program would likely run out of money by late December or early January. Despite drafting a plan to alert the public by January 8, approval delays meant the notice wasn’t issued until January 10—by which point the funds were already gone. Ouch.
The program’s abrupt halt on January 13 followed a massive surge in claims during its final weekend. Of the $48 million requested during those final 72 hours, a staggering $43 million came from Tesla alone. This spike represented roughly 8,600 rebate claims, which the government later determined to be legitimate backlogged sales, though the “run on the bank” effectively cleared out the remaining budget and left other dealers unable to file.
The sudden pause left many dealerships facing millions in outstanding payouts and caused market uncertainty. EV sales plummeted from 18 per cent of total vehicle sales in December 2024 to less than seven per cent by February. “Nobody in the industry could have ever anticipated they would slam the door overnight,” said Huw Williams of the Canadian Auto Dealers Association.
Current Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon has pledged to “monitor and measure” the recently reinstated funds more closely to ensure a more orderly process moving forward.