British Columbia is ending subsidies and rebates that previously applied to Tesla (TSLA) electric vehicles and their charging stations.
The government in B.C., Canada’s third most populous province, has announced that Tesla vehicles are no longer eligible for rebates through the province’s programs.
The move, according to the government, is being made “to preference Canadian goods in our rebate programs going forward and to exclude, where practicable, U.S. produced goods.”
The exclusion targets billionaire Elon Musk’s main company amid a trade war prompted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Musk, a close Trump ally, has used his social media platform to make statements disparaging outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and to say that “Canada is not a real country.”
The irony, of course, is that Musk himself is a Canadian citizen. Musk’s mother, Maye Haldeman is from Saskatchewan and Musk spent a lot of time in Canada growing up. He also attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
As a teenager, Musk used his Canadian passport to avoid South Africa’s mandatory military service. Despite his disparaging remarks, he has maintained his Canadian citizenship and passport after relocating to the U.S. as an adult.
But now, Canada appears to have soured on Musk and his comments about the country. B.C.
Energy Minister Adrian Dix said taxpayer dollars should no longer subsidize Tesla vehicles.
A petition to revoke Musk’s Canadian citizenship on the grounds that he has “engaged in activities that go against the national interest of Canada” and “attacked Canadian sovereignty” has amassed hundreds of thousands of signatures.
The British Columbia subsidies and rebates mostly applied to Tesla chargers, batteries and inverters, and were part of a program to incentivize clean energy products.
The rebates and subsidies previously covered as much as 50% of the cost of purchasing and installing a Tesla home charger, according to the provincial government. That coverage could be as high as $10,000 per charger.
Anyone who was approved for a rebate before March 12 will still be able to claim it, according to the B.C. government.
