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, who planned to sell his 2014 Honda Civic to help defray costs of the Tesla.

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“We’re going to hope to find out a little bit more information, get a little bit of clarity from the government in the next two days and will hopefully be able to make a decision ahead of when the car is going to be in the city,” he said.

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 its 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.”

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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.”

NDP MPP Sara Singh (Brampton Centre) blasted the Tories for axing Ontario’s cap-and-trade alliance with Quebec and California, which raised $1.9 billion annually to bankroll environmental initiatives such as the electric-vehicle program.

“Doug Ford took away the green programs that put more money in families’ pockets, then stuck people with the bill for his torn up contracts and cancelled programs,” said Singh.

“This is likely only the first of many decisions against the Ford government’s decision to rip up hundreds of cap-and-trade and green energy contracts, and just like (those of) the Liberals’ gas plant scandal, it looks like the costs for Ontario people are going to pile up,” she said.

Green Party spokesperson Stacey Danckert said the case “provides legal confirmation that the Ford government is acting based on ideology and not on evidence.

“Bumper sticker slogans might work during a campaign, but they cannot substitute for legitimate policy. The wind-down plan for EV rebates unfairly targeted people who used the program to purchase Teslas. It seemed mean-spirited and unnecessary at the time, and now the courts have agreed,” said Danckert.

In court, Tesla argued “that the government unlawfully targeted it without any rational basis.”

“Tesla fears that it is being demonized for purposes that are outside the legitimate reach of the laws that govern electric-car subsidies in Ontario,” wrote Myers.

“Tesla has hundreds of cars moving to Ontario to fill some 600 orders that were outstanding on the July 11, 2018 cut-off date.”

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

“Tesla only sought fair treatment for our customers and we hope the ministry now does the right thing by delivering on its promise to ensure all EV owners receive their incentives during the wind-down period.”

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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