Ontario owners: how long does it take to receive the government rebate?

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by bigbug, May 24, 2018.

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  1. Ray L.

    Ray L. New Member

    Update : Finally my EV charger rebate cheque arrived today. The application was submitted on July 23, 2018. 7 months to 5 days from today. I made a call to the telephone number supplied for the Ministry of Finance about 10 days ago, they were able to confirm the rebate was approved in early Feb but the cheque may take 3-4 weeks to arrived by mail due to processing time.
     
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  3. Omgswify

    Omgswify Member

    I thought the cutoff time for the chargers were well before July? That’s why I didn’t apply back in mid July when I took delivery of the car due to missing the supposed cut off time.
     
  4. GV123

    GV123 New Member

    Hi all,

    i just registered on this forum to vent my frustration for the MTO and how incompetent they are. I got an email yesterday after following people's advice of contacting them directly to check up. Warning: Don't be drinking anything/coffee or holding anything when you read below as you may spit out your drink or want to throw it at the screen.

    Electric and Hydrogen Vehicles Incentive Program (MTO) <[email protected]>
    Feb 28, 2019, 3:44 PM (15 hours ago)
    [​IMG]

    Hello,

    Thank you for applying to the Electric and Hydrogen Vehicle Incentive Program (EHVIP). After carefully reviewing your application, we regret to inform you that your application is ineligible for an incentive for the following reason:

    · Your vehicle was not on the ministry approved order list.

    The program was cancelled on July 11th 2018; as a result, eligible vehicles ordered on or before July 11, 2018 but plated and registered between July 12, 2018 and September 10, 2018 must be on the ministry approved order list from dealers and manufacturers to be considered for an incentive. If you have concerns with this decision, please reach out to your dealership. If the dealership states that your vehicle was on the ministry approved order list, please have them contact the Ministry at [email protected] to provide the required information for Ministry review.

    For more information on vehicle eligibility following the cancellation of the program please consult the ministry’s website at http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/vehicles/electric/electric-vehicle-incentive-program.shtml. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this notice of denial, please contact the Ministry by email at [email protected] or by telephone at (647) 274-0356

    Thank you,

    EHVIP Team
    Ministry of Transportation
    Government of Ontario

    So here is the crazy thing. I ordered my car mid march - and got my car plated on July 12, 2018. So my dealer shared with me the document they received on July 12, 2018 regarding the cancellation. the gist of it:
    Action required by close of business Monday July 16, 2018. Submissions will only
    be accepted once. In order to avoid any mistakes and to ensure remaining
    incentives will be applicable to your inventory, please consult your RSC prior to
    submitting your inventory list(s).

    Honda Claritys that have been delivered, registered and plated on or before July 11, 2018* will receive the
    incentive
    Clarity inventory on dealer lots and Clarity orders placed by dealerships with Honda Canada on or before July
    11, 2018 will be eligible for the incentive provided the vehicle is delivered to customers, registered, and
    plated by September 10, 2018*
    Eligible inventory must be confirmed with the Ministry of Transportation by end of day Monday July 16,
    2018

    There's a bit more to the notice but i didnt put all the unimportant stuff. Clearly my Clarity was being plated while the Government dropped the bomb on July 11, 2018 with no prior notice. Since the deadline to submit the inventory was July 16, and my car was already plated July 12 (i picked it up right away)!, no dealerships in their right mind would put that car in this inventory list if i drove the car away already.

    I fired back an email to that email address:

    Attached to this email is the correspondence my dealership received from the MTO regarding the cancellation. I would like to point out that my application was not carefully reviewed as one can see that my vehicle was possibly in the process of plating on July 11, 2018. It is unfair that the Government is not providing a transitioning grace period - if you look at your own notice to my dealership, the deadline to fill out the inventory is July 16, 2018. My vehicle was plated July 12, 2018. When your notice reached my dealership my car was already plated. And that is the reason why my dealership did not put the car on the inventory list, and my car should not given this harsh treatment on matters that are basically within minutes. In my opinion the deadline should not be July 11 and should be July 16 which is what MTO has given to the dealerships to fill out the inventory.

    I can ask my dealership to provide the date that the vehicle registration forms were submitted to a Service Ontario and maybe i can claim that they held up the process if it becomes necessary. I have also asked my salesperson to contact the EHVIP team as per this email.

    Will see how this goes....
     
  5. Ray L.

    Ray L. New Member

    To clarify, my charger purchase and installation was made before the deadline. I only submitted my application in late July.

     
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  6. V8Power

    V8Power Active Member

    Suggest that you contact your local MP for help with this one. You’re a victim of red tape.


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
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  8. V8Power

    V8Power Active Member

    The work was done but the electrical authority inspection took time then application.


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
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  9. Omgswify

    Omgswify Member

    Ah I see. I was literally kicking my butt thinking I could’ve applied back then.
     
  10. Rivek_egolfowner

    Rivek_egolfowner New Member

     
  11. Rivek_egolfowner

    Rivek_egolfowner New Member

    I just received the identical template letter yesterday, Feb 28, 2018, for my 2018 e-Golf. I'm just e-mailing my dealership tonight - forwarding the letter. I had no idea about these ministry approved order lists, or rather that there was an order list cut-off date back in July. I did order my e-Golf in November 2017 (yes it took that long to arrive from Germany) and I took delivery of the car the first week of September, 2018 - literally just crossed the Atlantic. It was plated and registered, and I emailed my EHVIP package on Sept 9, 2018. I thought I was in with time to spare. Now I find out about this order list business. I'm wondering if my dealer knew I'd be screwed out of the rebate when I picked up the car. Surely they would have/should have told me that the car was or wasn't on an approved order list. Or maybe I'm screwed on a technical glitch - I ordered my car under the old rebate program that ended March 8th, 2018 and the submission deadline for that vintage was Sep 7th, 2018. I submitted Sep 9th, 2018. Wouldn't that be a 14K kick to the n*** - 2 days late!

    Either way I'll let folks now what unfolds - I think I may be facing added months of bureaucratic abyss as a best case scenario.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 2, 2019
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  13. jstephens

    jstephens Member

    Good Morning,

    We got the same denial email, so incredibly disheartening after believing we had all boxes checked. Our situation is slightly different from yours in that our dealer never received the July 12 email to submit eligible inventory. Ours was the only EV our dealer ever sold so they were apparently not on the network email list. I spoke with the MTO office, apparently, our only glimmer of hope to get our file re-opened is if VW Canada or the regional office sent our VIN# into the office and we can prove that MTO made a mistake. I've filed a complaint against the MTO with the Ontario Ombudsman, emailed CBC Marketplace, CBC Go Public, Ellen Roseman at the Toronto Star. I wanted to let you know in case you want to do the same. The claim is being denied on a technicality that is anyone's fault but ours. While the EV rebate application makes mentions of the "ministry approved order list", we thought it was referencing the published list of eligible cars. We never would have proceeded to take possession if the MTO had indicated that all paperwork was not in order, all calls from our dealer to the MTO prior to the Sept. 10 deadline went unanswered. So incredibly frustrating. This is the message I've sent to CBC etc., perhaps if there are enough of us, someone will take notice:

    "We are out $14,000 because the Ministry of Transportation has denied our electric vehicle rebate application, apparently our VIN# does not appear on a ministry approved order list. This is a technicality over which we had no control and our dealer tried to prevent by calling the MTO office several times to confirm all paperwork was in order prior to the Sept. 10 deadline. All calls went unanswered. We trusted the government, had faith in the process, believed our dealer, took possession of the vehicle, filed our paperwork on time and now we're out a lot of money.

    The problem lies here, a message was sent to dealers on July 11 or 12 from MTO stating that dealers needed to get eligible inventory onto an approved list by July 16. Our dealer never received this communication and as our VIN# does not appear on a list. The EV rebate application we filled out makes mention of the ministry approved order list, my husband and I assumed it was this one: http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/vehicles/electric/electric-vehicle-rebate.shtml
    Eligible Electric Vehicles - mto.gov.on.ca

    This is the message we received from the MTO a couple of days ago:
    "Thank you for applying to the Electric and Hydrogen Vehicle Incentive Program. After carefully reviewing your application, we regret to inform you that your application is ineligible for an incentive for the following reason:
    · Your vehicle was not on the ministry approved order list.
    The program was on July 2018; as a result, eligible vehicles ordered on or before July 11, but plated and registered between July 12, and September 10, must be on the ministry approved order list from dealers and manufacturers to be considered for an incentive. If you have concerns with this decision, please reach out to your dealership. If the dealership states that your vehicle was on the ministry approved order list, please have them contact the Ministry at [email protected] to provide the required information for Ministry review."

    We are continuing to try to work out this situation. Our dealer is awaiting confirmation on whether or not there is any proof that our VIN# was sent to the Ministry for approval by VW Canada. In any case, we've requested that the decision to deny our claim be overturned, as our claim is 100% legitimate. The technicality of the VIN# not appearing on an additional list is anyone's fault but ours. There was not adequate information provided by the MTO. Our dealer never received the notice on July 12 to submit eligible vehicles to a list by July 16, likely because ours was the only e-Golf the dealership ever sold and they were not included in the email that went out to the dealer network.

    It is not reasonable to deny our claim based on poor communication during a transition period. Had the MTO responded to our dealer and indicated there was a problem, we would never have proceeded to take possession. Either the dealer, manufacturer or government should take responsibility for this, why are we left holding the bag and out $14,000. The government is supposed to help people, this is not right. They have arbitrarily denied our claim. Every other piece of documentation is in order, we took great care to make sure all boxes were checked. The MTO has stated they will only consider appeals before the end of the month.

    Could you help us?"

    We'll see how it goes.
     
  14. jstephens

    jstephens Member

    We are in the exact same position, similar dates, same car, what dealer? Our dealer never received the email to submit eligible VIN#s. I have emailed CBC Marketplace, CBC Go Public, Ellen Roseman at the Toronto Star and made a complaint with the Ontario Ombudsman. This is ridiculously unfair.
     
  15. Rivek_egolfowner

    Rivek_egolfowner New Member

    My dealer is YorkdaleVW and from what I hear one of the few dealership that were able to sell e-Golf, but perhaps the biggest vendor of e-Golfs. I guessing they sold 20+ in 2018 which is a lot for single dealership, but they are in Toronto which would have the biggest market. This is the e-mail I received from this particular dealership this morning:

    "You are not the only one. Every one of our [e-Golf] clients has forwarded us this email. Your car WAS, of course, on the list. It appears that there was an “administrative error” on the part of the government... . We’re looking into it and should have something by early next week. I’ll be in touch. It’ll be ok."

    My reps reply has calmed my nerves and my temper somewhat. I know I'm not the only e-Golf owner out there with this issue. From my earlier post I did mention I ordered my car back in Nov. 2017. I also recall that around the early Spring of 2018 VW Canada sent clients who were on the wait-list letters asking if they were committed to waiting for their e-Golf and if not they could bow out and receive their $1000 deposit back. I chose to stick with it. I remember talking to my dealer rep. in person around this time and he showed me a page on his computer screen with my name and when my e-Golf would be assembled in Germany, and roughly when it would be delivered (it even had my options and paint colour) so surely at that point the car would have been inventoried with Yorkdale VW - at that time my e-Golf had a Nov/Dec 2018 delivery date. My car was delivered the first week in Sep. 2018 so I assume many potential VW e-Golf owners got cold fee and fled. Now all this business about committing to the car and signing a letter in the Spring was done well before the provincial election and well before name 'Rob Ford' became a house-hold bane. The point I'm making is that e-Golf owners who had the cars registered and plated prior to the Sep 11, 2018 deadline would have had to have their cars ordered 8-10 months in advance, so how could the cars not be inventoried. Surely every VW dealership selling e-Golfs would have to know about submitting the VINs to the MTO, whether Rob Ford existed or not. The ridiculousness is this supposed July 16 deadline to submit VINs once Ford came into power.

    I feel for you jstephens. If indeed your dealership was a small time player in the small e-Golf market I could potentially see how your dealership may have been overlooked. But as you mention it's not your fault and your application should be treated as 100% sound. Fight it tooth and nail. I'll update as soon as I hear more from my dealership about their feeling that this was an administrative error on the part of the MTO/EHVIP Team.

    Rivek_egolfowner
     
  16. Leafboy

    Leafboy New Member

    Just signed up so we can discuss. Got same rejection email Thursday regarding ministry approved order list which before then I never heard of.

    Here is my background, order my Leaf in April 2018 before the election where they committed a delivery date of end of July 2018. Sure though announcement occurred July 11. Got a call from dealer in late July indicating another colour leaf was delivered and I could have it if I wanted it. I said sure.

    Went on website and did the forms. Guide at the time was NOT updated therfore not explaining this ministry list issue. So I submitted per the form on the website in late July.

    I got in touch with my dealership and thankfully they have an email sent to MTO on July 16 where my car is on the list as it was a stock order. Will update the forum on my outcome.
     
  17. jstephens

    jstephens Member

    Ok. Wow. It's beginning to sound like a systemic problem affecting many of us, perhaps if our dealers lean on VW Canada or TADA (Toronto Area Dealers Network) for help to resolve this and clear up the "administrative problem". Bottom line is the government announced a wind-down plan and that we would get our rebates if certain conditions were met. This particular condition of getting on a ministry approved list being announced on July 13 to a select group of dealers, with a deadline of July 16, is absurd. If a private business behaved this way, they would be finished. I will keep you posted too.
     
  18. jstephens

    jstephens Member

    I spoke with a person named Sean (at the MTO phone number in the denial email). He did indicate that if you could send proof that the mistake was theirs and that your VIN was submitted, there was a possibility of reversing the decision. Best of luck. Keep us posted.
     
  19. Rivek_egolfowner

    Rivek_egolfowner New Member

    First, apologies for the typos and getting Rob's and Doug's names mixed up - yes Doug is the premier. That said yes it's interesting to hear that owners of other EV brands, e.g., Nissan and Honda, appear to be having similar issues. Being aware of government bureaucracy and how challenging it can be to wade through the reeds, the cynic in me wonders if a top down decision was made to go ahead and administratively press the deny button, in the hopes that many will just throw up their hands and forego the rebate rather than spend the time to challenge the denial. I've heard the GoON is trying to wrap this EV rebate chapter up by the end to the fiscal year, March 31st. The news reports at the time wrote about a flood of EV owners who bought vehicles in the last weeks of summer to beat the Sep 11th deadline, and I would think that the "EHVIP Team" is wading through this tsunami of applications now: other forums and threads suggest a minimum of 6 months from application submission to the time your rebate is deposited. Are we all part of that last minute flood? This easiest way to meet the FY deadline would be to deny all the remaining applications on inventory list technicality. Okay I'm starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist : ).

    Anyone have a sense of how many EV owners are getting approvals at this time of year? If deny is the norm then it suggests this inventory list call-out is the root of the problem. I like the idea of bringing this to the attention of the TADA (Trillium Automobiles Dealer Association, which is an all encompassing dealership association - no longer Toronto separate from the rest of Ontario). They must be talking already - my dealer rep sounded confident this is would be resolved. I hope he's correct - the interest on my 14K is adding up!

    I hope Doug Ford realizes we're not all EV buying Bay Street elitists that he keeps dissing in the news cycles. Based on EV sales numbers since he canned the program the 'elitists' are still buying 6 figure premium cars/SUVs with internal combustion engines, not moderately priced EVs.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2019
  20. jstephens

    jstephens Member

    I emailed our MPP, their office responded that they would call the MTO. I also reached out to the Green Party office, they let me know that they've successfully had cases re-opened for their Guelph constituents.
     
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  21. lordplum

    lordplum New Member

    Hey all. Registered to add to the conversation of the rebate denials due to "Your vehicle was not on the ministry approved order list". I purchased a BMW 330e (ordered end of June, delivered and plated end of July, rebate application submitted Aug 2), got the notice of denial last week. I contacted my dealership, and my salesperson said there are 11 other 330e and i3 rebates that were denied for the same reason. It has been brought up to BMW Canada, and I'm waiting to hear back. I have requested (but not yet received) confirmation from the dealership that they actually submitted the inventory/order list by July 16. I am in touch with the Ontario Ombudsman's office, and have asked them for help.
     
  22. lead

    lead New Member

    Also in the same boat with an application denial with the explanation that the vehicle was not on the approved order list. If this list is so crucial, why was it’s existance not somehow made public, ie, searchable by VIN, etc. The car was plated and application submitted at the end of August 2018. The dealer provided documentation that the vehicle order date was ordered prior to the cutoff. This same paperwork was also included in the application, and out of the blue, last Thursday (Feb 28) I got the email regarding the approved list. I emailed back, thinking they were referring to the approved model list, with a copy of the list showing Leaf S 2018. I received another email from EHVIP listing all the dates that to be followed, even if those had all been met. Emailed the dealer, and he mentioned several others had issues. This was purchased from a Nissan dealer in the GTA. Haven’t given my MPP a call yet, will see about that tomorrow.
     
  23. Leafboy

    Leafboy New Member

    Interestingly enough, when I look at the email where my dealer sent the list to the ministry. First it appears the dealer was just filling out a template and secondly this template does not have a field called "VIN". So this Ministry list they compile does not actually track the VIN to a rebate rather an order only.
     

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