1 week Ago By Nadine Filion
Article content You may have already read that after a two-month suspension, Quebec has brought back its provincial rebates for electric-car buyers . Since April, 1 2025, the Roulez vert program is once again offering up to $4,000 for a 100%-electric admissible vehicle bought new, and up to $2,000 for an eligible used one. But contrary to almost all other jurisdictions in Canada, Quebec hasn’t banned Tesla vehicles from qualifying for those incentives: the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are still eligible for the maximum rebate.
Ever since Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, got involved in Donald Trump’s new federal administration Stateside, the electric-car company has been the target of vandalism and attacks all around the world. On this side of the border, the first “ripple effects” were made apparent when the Vancouver Auto Show kicked Tesla out of its 2025 event, citing safety concerns . Then it was Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, announcing its intent to ban Teslas from its list of vehicles eligible for a local EV-taxi subsidy .
Since then, most provinces and territories have removed Tesla from their EV rebate programs , including Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and – even if it was the last to do so – even the Yukon . More importantly, new Canadian Transportation Minister Chrystia Freeland announced two weeks ago that Tesla vehicles will be barred from participating in any future federal EV incentive programs , “as long as illegitimate and illegal U.S.
tariffs remain in place.” Freeland’s decision also appeared tied to the $43 million in federal EV rebates that Tesla claimed on 8,669 vehicles , apparently all sold – or at least processed – in just 72 hours by four Canadian dealerships last January. One of them, located in Quebec City, was able to file for more than 4,000 Teslas that weekend, bringing Transport Canada to launch an investigation.
While it’s underway, the federal government has frozen the pending rebates. No ‘Elbows Up’ for Quebec All this is to say La Belle Province is not following the “elbows up” mentality the rest of Canada seems to have taken up against Tesla. A spokesperson for Quebec’s ministry of the environment passed on to Driving.
ca a quote from Minister Benoit Charette: “ Nous laissons aux Québécois le choix de choisir le modèle de leur choix. ” Translation: “We leave it up to Quebecers to choose the model of their choice.” Since the creation of the Roulez vert program in 2012, Quebec has given nearly $400 million to 55,000 Tesla buyers —more or less 15% of all the rebate money granted.
One-third of that amount was granted last year, 2024. And that is on top of the money doled out via the now-suspended federal iZEV program . Last year, the federal government gave nearly $95 million to Quebec buyers of Teslas.
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