"Electric" cars powered by coal from national grid

 Adverting Complaints Authority COMPLAINT NUMBER 23/033 

ADVERTISER Toyota New Zealand 

ADVERTISEMENT Toyota New Zealand Television DATE OF MEETING 20 February 2023 OUTCOME No Grounds to Proceed Advertisement: 

The television advertisement for Toyota is promoting the Lexus RZ car. The voiceover says "The driver wanted to feel the road, to respect the planet …". The Lexus RZ is described as "all electric". 

Complaint: This ad says the Lexus R2 is fully electric and allows you to care for the planet. 

It is completely false that electric propulsion cars are fully electric in New Zealand if they are powered off of the national grid as 20% of our power is generated by coal. 

This is not only false it is dangerously so as people who drive them can be self-righteously deluded they are saving the planet when they are destroying it as much as conventional car users, perhaps more. 

This is not the fault of the car manufacturer, it is a failure of government policy that our national grid is not fully based on renewables, adding more electric cars to the road will probably mean far more coal will be need to be burned with the current grid. 

I have heard of someone in New Zealand who powers his electric car with his own solar panels, this is much better but still can’t be called fully electric as petroleum is still used in the mining, manufacturing and transportation of solar. 

This applies equally to many other ads for "electric cars" of other companies of course but I understand I can only complain about a specific ad. 

 

The relevant provisions were Advertising Standards Code - Principle 2, Rule 2(b), Rule 2(h); Principle 2: Truthful Presentation: Advertisements must be truthful, balanced and not misleading. Rule 2 (b) Truthful Presentation: Advertisements must not mislead or be likely to mislead, deceive or confuse consumers, abuse their trust or exploit their lack of knowledge. This includes by implication, inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, unrealistic claim, omission, false representation or otherwise. Obvious hyperbole identifiable as such is not considered to be misleading. Rule 2(h) Environmental Claims: Environmental claims must be accurate and able to be substantiated by evidence that reflects scientific and technological developments. 23/033 2 

The Chair noted the Complainant was concerned the advertisement was misleading because it describes electric propulsion cars as fully electric and good for the planet without taking into account the source of the electricity. The Chair said the term “all electric”, in this context, means the car is “powered purely by battery” 1 , without using any fuel. She noted this term is generally applied to such vehicles regardless of the source of the electricity used to power the car. 

The Chair said consumers interested in electric cars would be aware the claim related to the battery power source and many consumers choose electrified cars because they produce fewer exhaust emissions than petrol or diesel cars. 

The Chair said the advertisement was not likely to mislead or confuse consumers and did not meet the threshold to breach Principle 2, Rule 2(b) or Rule 2(h) of the Advertising Standards Code. The Chair ruled there were no grounds for the complaint to proceed. 

Chair’s Ruling: Complaint No Grounds to Proceed

To the office of Hon James Shaw, Minister of Climate Change and Associate Minister for the Environment (Biodiversity). 01/03/2023

Dear Minister,

 I think the encouragement of electric "clean" cars with things like discounts is a deadly and ridiculous "greenwash" while 20% of our electricity grid is powered by coal.

 

It allows people to smugly and self-righteously think they are doing something for the environment when they are actually making things far worse. 

 

Adding more "electric" cars to the road will mean we have to burn more coal given the complete lack of government leadership in encouraging the gargantuan expansion of renewables needed to power a nation of car addicts. It will also drive up the price of scarce electricity for essentials such as household heating.

 

Electric cars also still produce 40% of the emissions of petrol cars, it is misleading to call them clean. If more people in the world end up using them than petrol cars or use them more often because they are cheaper we may be even worse off in terms of emissions. 

 

I think we will have to move away from our addiction to transportation and focus on reducing and eliminating the need and desire to travel such great distances over and over for work, shopping and play, presumably through physical localization and decentralization and working from home where possible.

 

I see the environment as the most important issue today but have little or no faith in the Greens to come up with anything relevant. 

 

Sincerely

 

David Nicholls