Description
In 2018, Lexus, Toyota’s premium brand, started a new advertising campaign for its hybrids (HEVs without plugs) with claims like “self-charging,” having “infinite range,” all while trash talking all-electric vehicles in the process. Their logic to claim self-charging is that the gas engine is recharging the battery pack. They claim it’s “self-charging without a plug,” which, of course, they present as something more convenient than a plug, but they make no mention of having to go to the gas station to refuel every week and pay for that fuel.
The Norwegian Consumer Authority banned the ad in 2020 and said in a statement (translated):
In the Consumer Authority’s opinion, it is misleading to give the impression that the power to the hybrid battery is free of charge, since the electricity produced by the car has consumption of gasoline as a necessary condition: Regenerative energy will in all practical respects have consumption of gasoline as a necessary condition.
On this basis, we conclude that marketing is a misleading commercial practice in violation of Section 7, first paragraph, etc. In our view, the commercial practice will also be suitable for influencing consumers to make an economic decision that they would not otherwise have made, cf. § 7, second paragraph.
The current marketing is therefore an unfair commercial practice in violation of the prohibition in § 6 fourth paragraph, cf. the first paragraph.
Therefore, Toyota is not allowed to use this marketing campaign in Norway anymore, and it has to answer a few questions from the Norwegian Consumer Authority.