The mayor is carving out a Tesla-shaped exception in a local EV subsidy, and the deputy mayor wants a Tesla store closed
- Toronto mayor Olivia Chow wants to remove Teslas from eligibility for a local EV-taxi subsidy
- Meanwhile, Toronto’s deputy mayor wants a Tesla store in his ward kicked out of the mall
- The brand and its CEO, Elon Musk, has become even more polarizing in the last month
This snub is planned to take effect March 1; all other kinds of zero-emission vehicles including EVs and other American brands will still qualify for the program. “For now, the best we can do is send a message to the White House,” Chow is reported to have said during the council meeting at which this topic was discussed. Local media dug into the numbers and found fewer than a dozen Tesla vehicles currently getting fee reductions, resulting in less than five grand in sacrificed fees. This is a small but symbolic cold shoulder, then.
