Earlier this summer, the Ontario government decided to exclude Tesla from the phase-out period of the removal of the province’s EV incentives. The exclusion was done by a few carefully chosen words within the document that effectively ended the cap-and-trade program.
Naturally, the California-based carmaker responded with every legal weapon at their disposal. And finally, it’s paying off! An Ontario judge has decided that excluding Tesla from the incentives phase-out was outright discriminatory. And it’s now up to Ontario’s ministry of transportation to fix the issue.
The cap-and-trade program – which was worth up to $14,000 – allowed customers to trade-in their current gas guzzlers, in favor of a tax exemption on the value of the trade in.
In turn, Tesla (or any other car manufacturer ) can only watch away as their sales of EVs there go down the drain. However, being singled out of the phase-out of the program by carefully chosen legal lingo is simply discriminatory against Tesla.
Back in July, the end of the cap-and-trade program in favor of lesser fuel taxes was announced by the Conservative party leader, Doug Ford. This, in turn, pretty much ended purchasing of EVs on a grander scale in the province, all in favor of cutting ten-cents on every liter of fuel sold in the province. A small positive change for the average Joe, but a huge impact on the environment. . . .