UK (Commonwealth) _ The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has blasted MG Motor for misrepresenting the emissions of its plug-in hybrid lineup as “zero,” even though these vehicles still produce some exhaust emissions when their electric motor is not in use.
Moreover, MG was charged with neglecting to explain that although hybrids and pure electric cars produce no emissions at all when powered by their electric motor, they do not have zero emissions throughout the course of their whole lives.
These complaints were upheld this week by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in relation to a Google advertising that was initially viewed in August 2023.
MG has been advised to use greater prudence when using the term “zero emissions” and is therefore prohibited from hosting the same advertising campaign in the future. It has been recommended to the brand not to use this word while badgering hybrid cars with gasoline or diesel engines.
It should also “explicitly” state that it is only referring to tailpipe emissions when the phrase is used to describe pure electric cars. The Automobile Association (ASA) said that consumers must not be misled into thinking that all power used to charge cars is carbon-free or that there were no emissions produced during the production of the automobile or any of its parts.
This week, the ASA also upheld a comparable complaint against BMW. BMW was solely advertising fully electric cars, in contrast to MG. The German automaker’s August 2023 Google advertisement referred to its lineup of electric vehicles as having “zero emissions.”
BMW informed the ASA that Google’s automated keyword tool is what caused this term to be added to the advertisement. The company emphasized that, upon clicking, users would see a clear disclosure on lifecycle emissions, along with a disclaimer stating that the zero-emissions claim applied solely to tailpipe emissions.
However, the ASA claimed that because the explanation was not immediately apparent, buyers could be misled.
BMW promised the ASA that it wouldn’t make the same claim again. .. It informed the Authority that it had evaluated every one of its generic automated Google keyword placements, stopped utilizing “zero emissions cars,” and put procedures in place to guarantee human assessment of any future generic keyword-filled advertisement before these placements are published.
What comes next?
The findings establish a new precedent, especially considering that the UK government and EU lawmakers have been using different messaging on electric vehicles than the ASA.
The Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate is the UK government’s mandate that manufacturers raise the percentage of their production that is made up of electric models and other cars that have no exhaust emissions.
After Rishi Sunak, the premier, pushed back the UK’s restriction on new gasoline and diesel vehicle and van sales from 2030 to 2035, this rule was modified in the latter part of last year. Similar to this, the EU said that new light cars “must have zero emissions” as a result of its 2035 prohibition. Only in its announcement of the prohibition last spring is there an explicit reference of tailpipe emissions.
Given that this is the vocabulary that consumers are accustomed to, automakers will undoubtedly contend that they are simply adopting the phrase used by lawmakers.
One of the “most common and persistent myths” impeding acceptance of electric vehicles, according to Carbon Brief, is worries about the lifecycle emissions of these vehicles. According to its own calculations, an electric vehicle’s lifetime CO2 emissions are approximately three times fewer than those of a typical gasoline-powered vehicle. As additional nuclear and renewable energy sources are included into electrical networks, lifetime emissions will continue to drop.
Colin Walker, the head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, described the ASA’s rulings as “very strange.” He stated, “It is standard procedure to evaluate cars of all fuel types based on the amount of CO2 that comes out of their exhaust pipes.”
Car makers are being told they cannot promote their zero-emission vehicles as zero-emission vehicles, which seems absurd given they are trying to reach the objectives set by the [UK ZEV] requirement for the number of vehicles they must sell.
In actuality, an electric vehicle (EV) emits three times less carbon dioxide (CO2) over its entire life—from construction to driving to scrapping. And when additional renewable energy sources join the UK’s system, that percentage will rise. In light of this ruling, it is questionable why the ASA allows companies like Toyota to pass off the greenwashing of their hybrid cars as “self-charging”—as if the power in their batteries were created magically out of thin air rather than by burning the gasoline in their engines, he said.
