How to Keep a CRA-Compliant Mileage Logbook for a Tesla Company Car
To keep a CRA-compliant logbook for a Tesla, record every business trip with its date, destination, purpose and kilometres, plus odometer readings at the start and end of the year. The CRA says the best evidence of business use is an accurate logbook maintained for the entire year, and these rules apply to a battery-electric Tesla exactly as they do to a gasoline car — there is no EV exemption. Records must be kept for six years.
What does the CRA require in a mileage logbook?
The Canada Revenue Agency states that the best evidence of business use is an accurate logbook of business travel kept for the entire year. For each business trip you record the date, the destination, the purpose and the number of kilometres driven, plus the odometer reading at the start and end of the fiscal period so you can establish total kilometres for the year. From those figures the CRA works out your business-use percentage: business kilometres divided by total kilometres. That single percentage drives how much you can deduct or exclude, so it has to be defensible. Estimated or reconstructed year-end logbooks are routinely rejected on audit, and the burden of proof sits with the taxpayer, not the CRA.
Does a Tesla change any of the logbook rules?
No. A Tesla is a 100% battery-electric vehicle, but Canada gives BEVs no special break on record-keeping or on the automobile benefit. The CRA applies the same logbook standard, the same standby charge and the same operating expense benefit to an electric car as to a gas car. There is no federal EV exemption. The only EV-specific nuances sit elsewhere in the return — for example, electricity is treated as your "fuel" cost and a Tesla can qualify for the enhanced zero-emission-vehicle capital cost allowance (Class 54, with a $61,000 cost limit) — but none of that changes the requirement to log your kilometres. The percentage still comes from the logbook.
Can you use the CRA's simplified logbook method?
Yes. The CRA allows a full-logbook method or a simplified method. Under the simplified method you first keep one complete, representative 12-month base-year logbook. In later years you then keep a continuous three-month sample logbook and extrapolate your business use from it — as long as your business use for that sample stays within 10 percentage points of the same period in the base year. The simplified method is only as good as the base year behind it, so the base-year log still has to be complete and accurate. Automatic capture makes both easy: your Tesla records the trips, and you keep a clean base year without having to remember to write anything down.
How long do you keep the logbook?
Keep your logbook and supporting receipts for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to. If you use the simplified method, keep the base-year logbook for as long as you are relying on it to support later years' claims. Losing the records can be as costly as never keeping them, because the CRA can reassess and disallow the deduction if you can't produce the evidence.
FAQ
Does the CRA accept a logbook I rebuild at year-end?+
Estimated or reconstructed logbooks are routinely rejected. The CRA expects a contemporaneous record kept as you drive, which is exactly what automatic capture produces.
Do I need to log personal trips too?+
You need enough to establish total kilometres and your business-use percentage. For a company car you also track personal kilometres separately, because they determine the taxable benefit and whether you qualify for the reduced standby charge.
A CRA-ready Tesla logbook is simply an accurate, year-round record of date, destination, purpose and kilometres — and letting your car capture it automatically is the surest way to keep one. Join the Odoproof waitlist to turn every Tesla trip into an audit-ready logbook.
Join the waitlist