Tesla Model 3 RWD tops Canada’s iZEV rebate sales charts in February after price cut

The Tesla Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) is once again sitting on top of the monthly sales rankings in Canada among electric vehicles (EVs) eligible for the iZEV rebate.

For all of 2022 the entry-level Model 3 RWD did not qualify for the $5,000 federal rebate, which requires an EV to be priced under $55,000, after Tesla increased the price above that threshold in November 2021. Despite this it was still the top selling rebate eligible EV in Canada in 2022 due to long delivery wait times which meant the majority of the Model 3 RWD cars delivered last year were ordered before the price hike and still qualified for the incentive.

Those rebate eligible deliveries slowed to a crawl towards the end of 2022 and into 2023, with 8 being delivered in December and just 2 in January. Then Tesla slashed the price of the Model 3 RWD in mid-January, and that number has predictably skyrocketed.

According to data from Transport Canada a total of 1,777 rebate eligible Model 3 RWDs were delivered in February, or more than 31% of all rebate eligible EVs last month (5,669). The majority were delivered in British Columbia (701), Quebec (542), and Ontario (462).

The next most popular EV, the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, recorded 531 deliveries across Canada during the 28 day month. In third was the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (514) followed by the Hyundai Kona Electric (330) and Hyundai IONIQ 5 (265). The data was first reported by Automotive News.

Source: Transport Canada data. Compiled by Drive Tesla

So far in 2023 a total of 10,428 iZEV rebates have been snapped by buyers in Canada. As expected Quebec and British Columbia are leading the way, accounting for over 73% of that number with 4,780 and 2,837 incentives handed out in just those two provinces respectively.

Ontario, even though it offers no provincial incentives for EVs, sits in third place with 2,084 incentive-eligible purchases in January and February 2023. After that the numbers drop off substantially with Alberta buyers claiming 318 rebates, followed by Nova Scotia with 106.

Only Nunavut has been shut out so far this year, and one lone buyer of an Outlander PHEV in the Northwest Territories in January and none in February.