As we reported earlier this week, a judge in Ontario has sided with Tesla and agreed that the government was discriminating against the company when it excluded Tesla from the phase-out period of the removal of the province’s EV incentives.

It was up to the Ministry of Transport to come up with a new phase-out period that wouldn’t specifically leave Tesla buyers hanging and they have officially updated it today.

You can read our last report for the entire background on this strange saga, but what is new today is that the government updated the terms of the phase-out to remove the language that targeted Tesla.

It now says that orders “by customers directly from manufacturers on or before July 11th” are also included in the phase-out:

“Eligible vehicles were on dealer lots in Ontario, or on order by dealers or by customers directly from manufacturers on or before July 11th, and delivered to customers, registered and plated on or before September 10, 2018. These vehicles must be on the ministry approved order list from dealers and manufacturers.”

“Several hundred” Tesla Model 3 buyers were reportedly affected by the move.

Now, if Tesla delivers their cars by September 10, it looks like they should be able to take advantage of the $14,000 EV incentive like buyers of any other EVs in the province.

We contacted Tesla about the change to see if it is satisfactory for the automaker. We’ll update this post if we get more information.

Update: A Tesla spokesperson sent us the following statement: “We’re happy the Ministry did the right thing by delivering on its promise to ensure all affected EV owners receive their incentives during the wind-down period. For customers who cancelled their orders as a result of the Government’s initial decision and now wish to renew, we hope the Government will work with us to achieve a fair resolution.”

Electrek’s Take

That’s good news, but it’s not a perfect fix in practice.

I assume that the affected buyers who took delivery over the last month are going to be retroactively compensated, but I am sure that some also canceled their orders because they didn’t budget for the purchase without the incentive.

Now it’s probably going to be too late for them to reinstate their order and get the car within the next two weeks.

I’d be surprised to learn that no one is being negatively impacted by this screw up from the Ontario government even if they ended up fixing the situation (after being forced to by the court).

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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