Public Citizen filed a complaint against the FTC regarding Toyota’s advertising strategy with their Hybrid vehicles
Original source: https://www.citizen.org/article/ftc-toyotas-misleading-advertising/
Edit: Removed “primarily with non-plug-in hybrids” from description
I went in fairly skeptical of the claims, but damn. The marketing examples given (and there are very many) absolutely seem to be extremely intentionally misleading. HEV, PHEV that stuff isn’t the issue. But the advertisement where they have their whole fleet of vehicles sitting next to EV charging stations, despite only 3 of them having plugs? And “Electrified , Diversified”? Yeah that’s total fucking bullshit.
Good on someone taking them to task.
I work in the industry and HEV, PHEV and BEV are normal terms but I do wonder if regular consumers are received by this
Glancing at the advertisements they’re citing, it looks like Toyota is trying to equivocate their hybrid/HEV vehicles with BEV/PHEVs.
I guess it depends how many people get a HEV and are surprised there isn’t a charge port
