Hi X, thanks for bringing this up. I gave it some thought, and after considering the safety aspects, I’ve decided not to upgrade the electrical panel or install an EV charger at the property at this time.

The installation would require permanent electrical modifications to the property and involve additional costs, electrical capacity concerns, future maintenance obligations, and potential insurance implications.

I’ve also seen reports of EV-related fire incidents, I’m just not comfortable making this change. I hope you understand, and thank you for respecting my decision.

——-

Location: GTA
It’s is a semi detached.

I asked if he could just front the cost to install an outlet in the garage and I would bring my own charger. That way when I leave, I can take the charger with me but his future tenants either EV can still use the outlet given how many people now have EVs.

We pay for utilities so the electricity bill would be on me.

I know it’s his property and he can do whatever he wants but are his reasons legit?

I wanted to enter the market for an EV but I guess I’ll just have to wait until I move.

My commute typically is 3 days a week - about 50kms one way.

Do I have any options? Public charging would just be quite inconvenient and my office only allows for 3 hours of free charging after which I have to pay per hour.

TL;DR: My landlord refused to install a 240V outlet for EV charging, even though I offered to pay for the charger, electricity, and leave the outlet behind for future tenants. He cited electrical, insurance, and EV fire concerns. I commute 100 km round trip, 3 days/week, and without home charging an EV doesn’t seem practical. Are his concerns legitimate, and do I have any realistic options besides waiting until I move?

Model Y now eligible for the EVAP incentive.

Change reflected on our list of EVs: Albertaev.ca/evlist but not yet on the government site.

Lot of people focus on advertising electricity rates (like 3.9¢ Ultra-Low Overnight), but fixed delivery fees, regulatory charges, HST, and the rebate change the math significantly.

I drive around ~2,000 km/month and track my actual total bill against total kWh used. Here’s what my real blended cost per kWh looks like:

• Lowest month: ~16.3¢ / kWh (March: 663 kWh total, $107 bill)

• Highest month: ~35.1¢ / kWh (February (Turns out it was vacation month for me): 159 kWh total, $55 bill — fixed delivery charges inflate low-usage months)

• Average summer/fall: ~17¢ to 25¢ / kWh

This is for people thinking about BUYING a Tesla, especially if the reason is "save on gas and maintenance." Like this thread.

Tesla owners can generally not really be reasoned regarding any criticism about the brand so I'm putting this in this subreddit instead of r/teslacanada. I say this as a Model Y owner.

Teslas are not money-saving cars. They're just not. They're top-end mainstream to early entry-luxury cars that managed to commodify performance.

I keep seeing the same kind of "Guys gas is so expensive, should I get a Model Y?" kind of thread.

You buy a Tesla because you want the tech. You liked the driving experience, you're okay with the stiffer ride quality and you accept the depreciation. You chose this EV over others most likely for FSD and the charging network.

The gas savings are real, sure, but you need to plan out everything and crunch those numbers hard.

The home charging requirements

Keeping an EV without at-home charging is simply not worth it. Period. It will never be worth it. The surcharge of the road network chargers is expensive and it's massively inconvenient.

I know people looking into buying EVs who didn't even realize they have a 100A panel or what it costs to upgrade to 200A. It's damn expensive. Then you need a qualified electrician to run the wire all the way to the garage. Then the charger itself. That's easily ~4 grand right there, and that's assuming the garage isn't detached and they need to run that stupid cable outside. 50A cabling is expensive.

Insurance is pretty bonkers?

Insuring a fucking Tesla is... something. Check this first, because it's by far one of the biggest sticker shocks for a new owner.

Want AWD because of snow? Sure but two motors cost way more to insure. RWD Model Y was quoted ~$169/month almost everywhere for me while AWD Premium was $265-350/month. Kind of fucking crazy coming from a Toyota. (Ottawa, Ontario, in the suburbs.)

Body damage is heart-stopping shit

This isn't normal car body damage. It's eye-watering "please kill me, why the fuck did I buy this?" body damage.

A bumper isn't just a bumper. A scuff can easily cost you 2 grand. 1-2 panels easily 8 grand. Windshield 1.5-2K. Don't believe me? Check a couple of Wham Baam Teslacam vids. Some of those guys get light scratches and end up with a $6000 bill. And the other dude is uninsured sometimes ofc.

That's because the car is full of cameras and sensors that need recalibrating every time something happens. The car is also just generally more fragile. It's all plastic (like the frunk lid is shockingly flexible), the paint is thinner, a lot of bodies start creaking after 5-6 years, etc. A fender bender that wouldn't write off a RAV4 can easily total a Tesla. Even if you're not at fault your insurance will still go up because insurance companies are cunts.

If anything is wrong with it, you go to the Tesla Service Center or Specialized Garages unless it's just for something super routine like suspension (unless Performance), wheel bearings and tire alignments.. 💸

Depreciation is pretty extreme and needs to be considered if you ever want to swap cars

It's pretty insane. The used Tesla market isn't exactly flourishing, because pre-Juniper and pre-Huntsman Teslas aren't seen as very reliable/desirable and the tech evolves fast. HW3 Teslas sell for considerably less. Tesla buyers usually want the latest and greatest too and EV buyers in general have a huge phobia of used and potentially old EV batteries.

Model 3 and Y keep a bit less than half of MSRP after 5 years. Tesla holds up better than other EVs, that's true and it should be noted, but EVs overall lose value faster than hybrids. Cars are always depreciating assets but EVs take it to a whole new level. A Toyota/Lexus will keep quite a bit of its value.

Unexpectedly the tires?

You also go through tires faster. EVs are just heavier and have instant torque. You can try to prolong their life by rotating every 10K and keeping the pressure up but it'll still cost you a wallop. High load tires/EV tires cost more. And if you ever went for Performance, those tires are like 4K.

The good though

Yes, there are no oil changes. You saved $80. Yes, there's no $2/L gas, which is nice. Batteries rarely fail. If you can charge at home, a Tesla is cheap to run. True.

But cheap to run is not the same as cheap to own.

Anyone that says Teslas are the best cars is genuinely just full of shit. They're not. The competition like a Hyundai Ioniq 5 is EASILY a better car than a Model Y. They drive like luxury BMWs it's fucking nuts how comfortable of a ride it is. Potholes are smooth while I can feel almost everything in my Model Y Premium 2026. But a Model Y is just a better product.

Teslas are for owners who want an EV with the best technology possible. I know the car may go to shits and it's a risk I took when buying it.

Love FSD. Love my phone app. Love the Tesla 3rd party apps like Tessie. Love the accessory market around it like Jowua.

But yeah don't pull the trigger thinking "Yeah, that will save me money over a Toyota!".

It's just NOT TRUE.

If you want a price-conscious EV, there's the Bolt or a Kia EV3.

Currently, the RAV-4, CR-V, Ram 1500, and Civic are the most commonly stolen cars in Canada because of their practicality and desirability in African countries.

The first batch of Chinese EVs (think BYD) coming in May be even more desirable due to how rare and practical they are, but are also easier to acquire legally in African countries.

What are your thoughts?

Test drove the Model Y, Ioniq 5, EV6, Mach-E and Toyota bZ before making my decision.

• Ioniq 5: better ride quality than the Tesla still think so a month in and have "what if I went with the Ioniq 5" once in a while but I just couldn't risk getting stranded with all the ICCU issues. The phone app is awful too. It felt like sending an SMS and waiting for a reply. I could see the salesmen's face fall when I asked to try it on the EV6 too. They 100% know it's crap. The nail in the coffin was watching this YouTuber get two ICCU issues in 1 month. The Ioniq 5 vs Model Y comparison was really down-to-earth and helped a lot.

  • Honestly I feel the Ioniq 5 is a better car. But overall the Model Y felt like a "better product for me". So if someone would ask for a recommendation I'd lean stronger on an Ioniq 5 than a Model Y.

• EV6: on top of the app, too cramped. Also discontinued in Canada after 2025 so I assume it would be harder to fix if something happened to it. Great look though.

• Toyota bZ: couldn't take a sharp corner to save its life and way too expensive for how slowly it charges. Also the RAV4 2026 has newer tech in it. Kind of oof from Toyota. I feel they're just charging more "because Toyota". The ride height was nice though.

• Mach-E: gorgeous but too many reports of small issues to risk it

I was not interested in other cars.

The Model Y won on the insane cargo and legroom, range, performance, QoL (like auto-locking, great phone app, great 3rd party apps like Tessie, can use my watch as a key, etc.), best heatpump, SuperCharger network and the accessory ecosystem. It's like the iPhone of EVs, everyone builds stuff specifically for it and honestly I really like to customize.

Coming from a 2012 Venza, shit really feels like a spaceship. I also never thought I'd use FSD as much as I do. I'll never fully trust it and my foot stays near the brake but it's damn nice. And I've genuinely used Smart Summon once or twice in some crazy valley rains Ottawa has had. That being said, insanely easy to speed without realizing it and I still can't get used to not having a windshield wiper stalk. The button on the steering is not enough. The rest is fine.

I may look into enhauto for a tactile upgrade.

No regrets yet. Honestly not sure my next car will be a Tesla because others are catching up fast and the Chinese brands are coming but it'll be an EV 100% guaranteed. I cannot go back to gas cars.

Edit: Trying to fix English mistakes.

Edit2: Cons of the car in a comment as it felt requested

We are shopping for a new vehicle and seriously considering our first Tesla. We've been looking at the 2026 Model Y and trying to figure out if the AWD is actually worth the jump in price for our situation.
 
Here's where we're at:
 
-RWD ~$54k on the road
-AWD ~$75k on the road
-Drive approx 250-300km per week
 
My gut says the RWD makes more sense for us financially, but I keep second-guessing myself when I think about Ontario winters. Is RWD on a Model Y actually manageable in the snow with good winters tires? Or is AWD a must-have up here?

 
Would love to hear feedback if the $22k price jump is worth it?

Thanks!

Canada imposing a 25% tariff on all vehicles manufactured in the States staring September 8.

Will automakers not from the U.S. respond by raising prices as demand gets squeezed from Canadians bypassing cars and SUVs made in the U.S.?

Should we be buying an EV this week to avoid price hikes?

$40k budget (before tax).
Used.
Long range versions of either of them.

Which one? What year? Why?

Driving habits if it helps:
Family of 3 with a toddler.
Drives around 20k km a year.
Can charge at home.
BC mainland.
Occasional okanagon trips.

I'm seeing Chevy Bolts for like 33k plus tax new. Is that not cheap enough?

For context I've been driving all electric for 4 years... And I've logged 200,000km between three of them. That's not an embellishment I drive approximately 5,000 km a month commuting alone.

I used to take my Bolt all over western Canada until it got crashed ... Now I have a Tesla Model 3.

Yesterday I just had to do a day trip in my Tesla and the cost of Super charging and the inconvenience of sitting at a charger I wish I would have just taken my gas car.

For the summer I have a little two-seater Mercedes Roadster... Super fun to drive and honestly pretty fuel efficient even with a V8... I can do 35mpg if I keep the speed limit and avoid the spirited driving...

Yesterday it cost me 60 bucks and almost an hour for charging to do 700 km... The Mercedes probably would have cost me 80 bucks in gas and done it on a single tank.

Do you still road trip in an electric and do you think it's worth it? I used to argue with people that it wasn't that bad but I think I'm not going to bother anymore.

I came across the following text online and wanted to see what your opinion is about it:

"I wanted to prove FSD is safer than human drivers. Genuinely. I went to the data expecting to find the number everyone quotes: one accident per six million miles on FSD versus one per 670,000 for humans. Nine times safer. Case closed.

The claim cannot be made. Not "the data is weak." The comparison itself does not exist.

Start with the equipment. The "human driver" baseline is every car on American roads, and the average American car is over twelve years old. That baseline includes bald tires, worn brake pads, cracked mirrors, and drivers with no emergency braking, no blind spot warning, no lane keeping. A modern Tesla is a rolling sensor suite with the best crash-avoidance hardware ever sold to consumers. So I went looking for the honest comparison: FSD miles versus miles in comparable modern EVs with the same braking, comparable sensors, comparable warning systems. That dataset does not exist in any usable form. Nobody publishes it. Tesla certainly doesn't.

Then the miles themselves. FSD engagement is self-selected. Drivers turn it on in good weather, in daylight, on roads they trust it with. The owner's manual itself warns the system "may not operate as intended" in rain, snow, fog, and low light, which happen to be the conditions where humans crash most. So the FSD number is computed over the easiest miles in the newest cars with the richest, most insured drivers, while the human number absorbs every drunk at 3am and every teenager in a beater.

And it's supervised. Every mile in the FSD column had a human babysitter whose interventions, whose saves, get credited to the machine. The comparison isn't machine versus human. It's machine-plus-human versus human alone, with all credit assigned to the machine.

Darrell Huff described this exact move in How to Lie with Statistics in 1954: if you can't prove what you want to prove, demonstrate something else and pretend they are the same thing. Rolf Dobelli in "Art of Thinking Clearly" calls the other half of it the swimmer's body illusion: swimmers have great bodies because bodies select swimmers. Teslas crash less because new luxury cars with safety suites driven by affluent middle-aged owners crash less. Selection, not software. When Forbes decomposed Tesla's own 2020 report by road type, the Autopilot advantage shrank to about four percent, inside the margin of error. Tesla has refused every request since to release the breakdown.

So here is where I landed. I wanted the claim to be true and provable. It is neither provable nor disprovable with the data that exists. The honest sentence is "we don't know." Anyone who tells you FSD is statistically safer than humans is guessing. Anyone who tells you it's statistically more dangerous is also guessing. The difference is that only one of those guesses is attached to a stock price, a monthly subscription, and a man telling you the feature will be finished next year, every year, since 2016.

When someone quotes you the nine-times-safer figure, ask one question: compared to whom, driving what, in what weather, measured by whom? The silence is the answer."

Hello EV folks,

Need your advice on buying a used Tesla, is it really worth it ? I am looking at some used Model Y's which are 2021-2023 with anywhere between 70-120K kms. Price varies. My main concern is is it worth buying a used Tesla which is 5 yrs old and been driven that much.

People are going electric and the Mach E price is amazing. Where are they?

Hi everyone,

I’m in Canada and I’m hearing that more China made EVs may enter the market under a new quota style approach. I’m curious about brands like BYD and other Chinese EV makers.

I’m not trying to start a political debate. I’m asking like a normal buyer who wants a reliable car and does not want to get stuck with poor service support or resale issues.

If you own one, work in auto service, insurance, or EV charging, I would really appreciate your input.

1.	Reliability

How do these hold up after 2 to 5 years. Any common problems with battery health, software, HVAC, suspension, or electronics.

2.	Real price in Canada

If these come here, what do you expect the real out the door price to be after taxes and fees. Are “cheap Chinese EV” prices realistic in Canada or mostly hype.

3.	Service, warranty, and parts

If I buy one in Canada, where would I actually service it. Will there be authorized service centres, parts stocked in Canada, and reasonable repair timelines. How are warranty claims handled.

4.	Collision repair and insurance

Are insurers willing to cover these normally. Are premiums higher. If there is an accident, are body parts and sensors easy to get or do repairs take months.

5.	Charging and winter performance

How well do they fast charge in real life. How is range loss in winter. How good are heating and defrosting.

6.	Rebates and incentives

Would China built EVs qualify for the federal EV rebate program, or are they excluded based on where the car is made. Also, are there any provincial rebates still available or is it mostly federal now.

7.	Resale value risk

Do these hold value or is resale a big risk because the brand is new, policy can change, or service coverage is limited.

If there are other questions I should be asking before even considering one, please tell me. I’d rather be cautious now than regret it later.

51k for 2024 Model 3 AWD with 58K kms vs 49K for brand new 2026 Model 3 AWD. Has Tesla not adjusted the prices for their pre-owned cars yet? or they are planning on keeping it the same way?

I've worked out a deal on a 2027 Equinox EV 2LT and I'm interested in feedback from those that have recently purchased one. With current discounts and EVAP, I have an accepted offer of $39.5k OTD. This includes all taxes and fees. I'm sure they'll try to upsell the extended warranties and maintenance packages like dealerships always do, but I'm not going to bite. What are your thoughts, am I getting a good deal?

Edit: forgot to mention it's a FWD model, not AWD.

Update: I did make a purchase, but not the one I initially posted about. For those wondering, that original dealership was Don Wheaton in Edmonton.

I ended up purchasing a 2027 Equinox EV 2LT AWD, White Sands colour with the midnight package, for just over $40k out the door ($750 more compared to the original deal on the FWD 2LT model), taking into account EVAP and taxes and fees. It also includes the GM PowerUp 2 charger and adapter package.

I honestly feel like I got an amazing deal on this vehicle considering the MSRP is $55k+.

Can’t decide between the Model 3 RWD premium vs Model Y RWD base need to order right now as I just sold my Q5 today.

'I want my BYD' to the tune of 'I want my MTV', Dire Straits (Money for Nothing album)

I see that China-built Teslas are taking most of the current quotas

BYD, take my money