https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/chinese-evs-canada-timeline-9.7117780
Chinese electric vehicles — including marquee brands like BYD, Chery and Geely — tend to sell at a lower retail price due to cheaper materials, low labour costs and industry subsidies from the Chinese government.
However, non-Chinese brands like Volvo, Polestar and Tesla also manufacture in China, and could potentially benefit from the EV deal announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney in January.
“If people are interested in one of the really low-cost EVs, or a brand that is not currently imported to Canada, then the process would take longer,” he explained.
Well sure. China EV manufacturers want to sell to those Canadians with fay wallets first.
Meanwhile:
Tesla supplied Canada with Chinese-made Model 3 vehicles from Giga Shanghai alongside US-built units. That ended in late 2024 when Canada followed the US and slapped a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, effectively killing that supply route.
Tesla adapted by sourcing all Canadian Model 3s from its Fremont, California factory. But when Canada announced 25% counter-tariffs on US-made vehicles in early 2025 as part of its retaliation against President Trump’s trade war, prices ballooned. The Model 3 Long Range All-Wheel Drive jumped to $79,990 CAD — roughly $25,000-$30,000 in tariffs baked into every unit.
For the Model Y, Tesla pivoted to sourcing from Gigafactory Berlin in Germany, which allowed it to dodge US-origin tariffs. But no such alternative existed for the Model 3, which isn’t built in Europe. Tesla hiked prices and watched demand collapse.
Model 3 and Model Y are already listed in Transport Canada’s certification database, meaning the vehicles can be imported immediately. Competitors like BYD still need approximately eight weeks just for certification approval.
Industry estimates suggest Tesla could secure 7,000 to 10,000 of the first 24,500 import permits — roughly 29-41% of the total first-half allocation. That would give Tesla a massive head start while other Chinese EV makers scramble to get certified.
This is a fascinating example of how tariff chaos creates absurd supply chain gymnastics. In the span of two years, Tesla’s Canadian Model 3 went from Chinese-built to American-built back to (soon) Chinese-built. The only constant has been that Canadian consumers paid more at every step.
The move makes complete sense for Tesla. Selling US-built Model 3s at $79,990 CAD was unsustainable — sales basically went to zero.
Shipping those units back to the US, where they can sell at normal prices, and replacing them with Shanghai-built cars at potentially $45,000-$55,000 CAD is a no-brainer.
The bigger question is whether Tesla will also shift Canadian Model Y supply from Berlin to Shanghai.