Advertising watchdog BANS carmakers’ ads referring to electric cars as ‘zero emissions’

Britain’s advertising watchdog has banned ads from two different carmakers that called their electric vehicles ‘zero emissions’ as it continues to crack down on claims about battery-powered models.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today said it has upheld rulings against BMW and MG Motor UK over ads that appeared on Google last year.

It said both ads had misled consumers by suggesting electric cars create no emissions during the manufacturing process – or when charged with non-renewable electricity.

The paid Google ad for BMW that ran on August 16, 2023 included the claim: ‘Zero Emissions Cars – Download your brochure today. Visit BMW’s official online website. Find the perfect BMW electric car. Book a test drive. Discover a range of electric cars from BMW…’.

On the same day, MG Motor UK also ran a paid Google advert saying: ‘Find a dealer – Book a test drive. Save £1,000 on your next MG HS Plug-in Hybrid, MG ZS or MG5 EV Trophy Long Range Updated with a modern design, longer range and even more technology. Zero emissions’.

The ASA disputed whether the ‘zero emissions’ claim misleadingly depicted the environmental impact of the vehicles.

This was especially the case with the MG example, which also advertised plug-in hybrid models with an additional petrol engine.

The ASA’s ruling said: ‘The basis of (MG Motor UK’s) claim in the advertisement was not explained.

‘A ‘zero emissions’ claim for an all-electric vehicle that did not explicitly make it clear that it related to the emissions produced while driving would be likely to be misleading.

‘Hybrid vehicles emit greenhouse gases from the exhaust pipe when the petrol or diesel source was in use. Any associated ‘zero emissions’ claim had to clarify that it referred to emissions while the vehicle was running on the electric motor.

‘Similar claims for vehicles with petrol or diesel engines would always be misleading.’

The ASA ruling added: ‘The advertisement made the claim ‘Zero Emissions’ without material information necessary to enable consumers to understand what it was based on. No distinction was made between vehicle types and it was not made clear that the claim was limited to emissions when an electric vehicle was driven.

‘We came to the conclusion that the advertisement was probably misleading.’

BMW responded to the ASA by saying it had included the reference in its advertising in an attempt to capture the number of people searching for electric vehicles online using the term ‘zero emissions’.

When it came to the BMW advert, the ASA said consumers would wrongly interpret those cars as producing zero emissions in all conditions.

‘We understood that driving electric vehicles produced no emissions, unlike a car with a petrol or diesel engine where the emissions came from the exhaust.

‘However, under other circumstances, such as during the production or charging of an electric vehicle using electricity from the national grid, emissions were generated.

‘For this reason, an advertisement with a claim of ‘zero emissions’, which did not explicitly make it clear that this was related to the vehicle’s response while driving, was likely to be misleading.

‘Without material information to make it clear to consumers what the claim was based on and without clarifying that it was limited only to emissions while driving, we concluded that ‘Zero Emissions Cars’ was likely to be misleading.”

Both BMW and MG were instructed that advertisements should no longer appear in their current form and any reference to ‘zero emissions’ in the future makes it clear that the claim only applies to an electric car when it is being driven.

The ASA’s ruling was published on Wednesday alongside an advert against radio ads from Transport for London (TfL) promoting the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

The watchdog said TfL’s claims that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) had been reduced by almost half as a result of the plan were not based on air quality measurements taken before and after implementation, as listeners would expect.

Instead, TfL based its claim on calculating the difference between current air quality measurements and a ‘non-ULEZ scenario’, but without qualifying this for listeners and likely misleading them, the ASA found.

The ASA also upheld complaints over claims in a second TfL advertisement that most deaths from air pollution ‘actually’ occurred in the London suburbs, when in fact this was based on modeled estimates.

Colin Walker of green think tank The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit described the ASA’s ruling as ‘a very strange decision’.

He said it It is ‘accepted practice’ that cars of all fuel types are rated based on the CO2 emissions they emit through their tailpipes using government standards Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate as an example of how the term is already being used to describe EVs.

“It seems perverse that in an effort to meet the targets they set under this mandate for the number of zero-emission vehicles they must sell, they are being told that they cannot market those vehicles as zero-emission vehicles.” to take. ‘ Mr Walker said: This is money.

‘The reality is that an electric car, from construction, from driving to demolition, emits three times less CO2 than a petrol car. And that figure will rise as more renewable energy sources continue to connect to the UK electricity grid.

Faced with this decision, you have to wonder why the ASA is happy to see Toyotas ‘greenwashing’ their hybrid vehicles as ‘self-charging’ – as if the electricity in their batteries is magically drawn from thin air, rather than from the air. gasoline burned in their engines. To be clear: that is not the case.’

ASA’s crackdown on EV terminology in advertising

In 2022, the ASA published its report on consumers’ understanding of commonly used environmental terms, such as ‘carbon neutral’, ‘net zero’ and ‘electric’ and ‘hybrid’ vehicles.

It says advertisers must be transparent about claims about terms such as ‘zero emissions’ when describing green products, including electric vehicles.

A spokesperson for the ASA told This is Money: ‘We have been regulating environmental claims in advertising for many years and we have made it clear that all objective claims must be supported by robust evidence.

‘When it comes to absolute claims, advertisers must consider the full life cycle of a product and have robust evidence to support the claims.

‘This is a long-standing position, taking into account independent consumer research which shows that claims in electric vehicle advertisements are not always clearly understood.

‘In this case, both advertisements said their vehicles were ‘zero emissions’, without qualifying what that actually meant.

‘We recognized that electric cars emit no emissions during use. However, given the emissions emitted during production and the potential emissions dependent on the charging source, we considered that objectively describing it as ‘zero emissions’ was misleading as we suggested that the product had caused no emissions at all. ‘

The rulings against BMW and MG come just weeks after the ASA slammed both Kia and Mercedes for advertisements that promoted the ‘official’ maximum range for new electric cars, rather than the actual range drivers would reasonably expect to achieve.