Toyota slammed for misleading customers in new report

A global organisation has taken aim at the world’s biggest car maker for alleged deceptive advertising, which it says will cost lives.

A global corporate watchdog has savaged Toyota in a scathing new report.

Ekō has accused the global giant of “Electrifraud” or greenwashing for referring to its hybrid vehicles as “electrified”.

The attack is the latest of a series of swipes at Toyota by environment groups, who claim the maker is actively trying to put the brakes on the adoption of electric vehicles.

It marks a stunning fall from grace for a brand that not so long ago was the darling of environmentalists for its ground breaking Prius hybrid.

The report calls out Toyota’s “Electrified” marketing campaign, saying it is misleading for using the terms “electrification”, “electrified” and even “electric” to describe hybrid vehicles.

It claims the Electrified campaign attempts to capitalise on growing electric vehicle demand to sell more “polluting” vehicles, chiefly petrol-electric hybrid cars, and to preserve Toyota’s social licence to operate.

A new report says Toyota is misleading customers with its “electrified” campaign.

Other car companies also use the term “electrified” to describe their plug-in hybrids, but Eko has only singled out Toyota for criticism.

Ekō campaigner Eoin Dubsky accused Toyota of greenwashing.

“Lies can cost lives. Toyota simply has to change. While Toyota’s marketers deceive would-be EV buyers with greenwashing and bait-and-switch tactics to sell more polluting petrol engine hybrids, the company continues to also lobby governments around the world against stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards,” says Dubsky.

Hybrids typically use 30 per cent less fuel – and therefore create 30 per cent less CO2 – than traditional petrol vehicles. Toyota has argued in the past that by offering buyers the choice of hybrid vehicles, which are typically thousands of dollars cheaper than EVs, it is helping to reduce emissions in a practical way.

A Toyota Australia spokesman said consumers increasingly understood and accepted Toyota’s multi-pathway approach to cutting carbon.

“Battery electric vehicles (BEV) cannot be the automotive industry’s only answer to climate change now. For many years, we simply won’t have enough battery materials and renewable recharging for a BEV-only solution” he said.

“Until those challenges are overcome, Toyota hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) can make a positive impact by lowering CO2 tailpipe emissions compared with equivalent petrol-only vehicles.”

Toyota Australia said hybrids are significantly cheaper than most fully electric vehicles and “they are cars for the masses, not for the few”.

The Eko report follows a similar one from Greenpeace in 2022 that left Toyota Australia black and blue.

The report claims Toyota is trying to dupe cusomters into thinking hybrids and fully electric cars are the same.

That report ranked Toyota last out of the top 10 brands for decarbonisation and the organisation called Toyota “one of the world’s most aggressive anti-climate lobbyists”.

Greenpeace ranked Toyota below “Dieselgate” architect Volkswagen, which has no hybrid or electric vehicles on sale in Australia.

Ekō’s report says Toyota uses the various electrified terms to describe hybrids to imply they are like fully electric vehicles.

Hybrids use a small electric motor and lithium ion battery to reduce fuel use.

The electric motor drives the wheels when taking off from a standstill and when coasting at speed, however it only runs on electric power alone for about 1km. The battery is topped up using regenerative braking, which feeds energy from stopping the vehicle back into the battery. It never needs to be plugged into a power source.

A plug-in hybrid vehicle has a larger battery and can drive on pure electric power for generally more than 50km. These vehicles need to be plugged in to replenish the battery in full.

Toyota firs electric cars, the bZ4X, is due to launch in Australia in February.

According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Toyota Australia had one of the the lowest overall tailpipe CO2 emissions for passenger cars in 2022, but its utes and four-wheel-drives are among the thirstiest on sale.

Toyota is preparing to launch its new bZ4X electric car in Australia next month. It plans to have six electric vehicles on sale by 2026.

The bZ4X has been on sale overseas for some time.

It has also invested billions in developing new battery plants and continues to investigate hydrogen as an alternative source of power for vehicles. A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle converts hydrogen to electricity that powers the wheels, the only tailpipe emission is water. The brand is currently triallling hydrogen vehicles in Australia.

Originally published as Toyota slammed for misleading customers in new report