Tesla has stopped accepting orders for the Model 3 Premium versions with rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive in Canada. These versions, manufactured at the company’s factory in Shanghai, were sold starting at C$39,490, making them the cheapest Model 3s available in the Canadian market. Tesla says strong demand has exhausted its quota of China-made electric vehicles and that orders will not return before March 2027 at the earliest.
By contrast, Canadian government data do not reflect exhaustion of the national quota. According to the Export and Import Controls tracker, only 15,931 permits had been used since March 1, out of an annual total of 49,000 permits. That means 33,069 permits, or 67% of the quota, remained unused as of the October 9 update.
What happened to the orders?
The Model 3 Premium RWD and AWD versions disappeared from Tesla’s Canadian vehicle configurator, leaving only the Model 3 Performance AWD available to order, listed with monthly financing of C$936. Tesla’s message describes the reason as the exhaustion of its own quota, while indicating that orders could resume if the Canadian government grants it an additional quota or when the new quota year begins on March 1, 2027.
Tesla began offering the Model 3 Premium RWD in Canada in May at C$39,490. Before that, the cheapest available version was the Fremont-built Long Range AWD at C$79,990, which is affected by Canada’s 25% retaliatory tariff on U.S.-made vehicles. Tesla had moved its U.S.-built Model 3 inventory out of Canada in March to make room for vehicles arriving from China.
Where is the contradiction?
In January, Canada reduced tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from 100% to 6.1%, but imposed a national annual cap of 49,000 vehicles, divided into two six-month periods. Global Affairs Canada guidelines state that permits are issued on a first-come, first-served basis and do not specify a publicly announced cap for each company.
Import figures indicate that the number of electric vehicles with a customs value not exceeding C$35,000 rose from 465 in June to 4,743 in July and 2,597 in August, coinciding with the start of Model 3 Premium deliveries. The number then fell to seven vehicles in September and zero in October through the latest update. The article clarifies that the value limit refers to customs value, not the C$39,490 retail price.
The two possibilities
A Global Affairs Canada memorandum includes a provision allowing permit applications to be monitored to ensure fair access to the quota, including the possibility of allocating part of it to manufacturers or new entrants. This could mean that the government effectively limited Tesla’s share to leave room for companies such as BYD and Geely, particularly because Tesla had a time advantage: its Shanghai-built vehicles had been listed in Transport Canada’s certification database since March, while the two companies were still preparing their dealer networks in Canada.
The other possibility is that Tesla’s accumulated orders already cover all the permits it expects to receive before the end of February. Global Affairs Canada does not currently publish company-specific details, so the share Tesla received or the timing of its use cannot be determined from public data.
Why does this news matter?
The stoppage affects more than the availability of a particular vehicle; it exposes a lack of clarity in how the market for electric vehicles imported from China is managed. If the government limited Tesla’s quota to preserve competition, publishing the allocations would give companies, dealers, and buyers a clearer basis for planning. If the national cap has effectively been filled by a single company’s quota, that could indicate that the 49,000-vehicle limit does not keep pace with demand for lower-priced electric models.
The current arrangements call for the quota to be reviewed and increased to 70,000 vehicles by 2030, but the source does not establish whether the government will accelerate that increase. What is certain is that people hoping to buy the Model 3 Premium for C$39,490 face a wait until at least next spring, while the details of permit allocation remain an open question.