Toyota
Misleading marketing

In its marketing, Toyota has often referred to its non-plug-in hybrid vehicles as "self-charging hybrid" vehicles. The use of the term has caused some criticism that this is misleading, as some consumers were led to erroneously believe that these vehicles charge their batteries on their own when the vehicles are not used. Complaints about self-charging hybrid advertising were recorded in Ireland, although the complaints were rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland. However, in 2020, the Norwegian Consumer Authority banned the adverts outright in Norway, stating: "It is misleading to give the impression that the power to the hybrid battery is free of charge, since the electricity produced by the car has consumption of gasoline as a necessary condition."

Electric vehicle website IrishEVs criticised Toyota Ireland for paying University College Dublin to conduct a study of only seven examples of their hybrid cars over seven days to make a press release about the efficiency of the vehicles. The website also criticised Toyota Ireland for using opinion polls to substantiate a claim about their CO emissions on Twitter.
detectable_format:title