Tesla win a setback for Tory EV cuts

Hundreds of would-be Tesla owners are stuck in neutral as Queen’s Park decides whether to appeal a court ruling that the government “unlawfully targeted” the automaker when it scrapped rebates on electric vehicles (EV).

Premier Doug Ford’s officials were poring over Justice Frederick Myers’ 17-page Ontario Superior Court decision on Tuesday before deciding their next steps after the legal setback.

They are expected to move quickly because Myers’s ruling effectively slammed the brakes on the Progressive Conservative government’s phasing-out of electric car subsidies.

Tesla buyer Kurtis Evans, who hopes to take delivery of his Model 3 next week, is in limbo because the $14,000 subsidy is a deal-breaker for his family. The Toronto elementary school teacher said he’ll have to cancel delivery of the $74,000 car if the rebate is not reinstated as Myers ordered.

“I’m not an elitist millionaire. We couldn’t afford the car without the incentive, that’s the reality of it,” said Evans.

Myers found that, in scrapping electric-vehicle subsidies last month, the Tories were unfair to the U.S. company, which sells directly to consumers instead of through franchised dealerships. When the fledgling administration announced the payouts would be phased out, it gave buyers who purchased their electric cars through independently owned dealerships — such as those selling vehicles from General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, and a dozen other carmakers — until Sept. 10 to take delivery.

But Myers said that wrongly “singled … out” Tesla, which sells cars directly to consumers.

“The decision to exclude Tesla by limiting the transition program to only franchised dealerships is arbitrary and …, in my view, it is egregious …,” the judge wrote, before ordering the government to pay $125,000 for Tesla’s legal costs.

“If the government wants to transition out of the electric car subsidy program, the (transportation) minister (John Yakakuski) must exercise his operational discretion in a lawful manner,” Myers continued.

“He has yet to do so. I, therefore, quash and set aside the minister’s unlawful exercises of discretion to implement the transition program announced July 11.”

A spokesperson for Attorney General Caroline Mulroney said the province is “reviewing the ruling and will make a decision on how to proceed in the coming days.”

In San Francisco, a spokesperson for Tesla said it was “pleased” by Myers’ ruling.