美国东部时间2023 年 12 月 13 日中午12:00

作者：罗布·斯坦普夫

向美国联邦贸易委员会提交的一份新投诉指控丰田误导消费者，让他们误认自己的电动化程度。

这一指控来自《公众公民》的一封公开信，该信要求联邦贸易委员会对丰田如何营销其电动汽车展开调查。具体来说，它指控丰田在广告活动中夸大其当前车型的电气化能力，故意误导消费者。

丰田为何被指控欺骗公众？

公众公民表示，丰田在广告活动中夸大其当前车型的电气化能力，误导了消费者。该组织声称，丰田应该更清楚混合动力、插电式混合动力和纯电动汽车的运作方式。https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/VzOA8y/s1/toyota-bz4x.jpg

诉状援引了丰田的几项营销策略，包括“超越零”、“电气化多元化”和“每个人自己的电动”活动。公众公民表示，在这些广告中，丰田做出了各种声明和解释，可能会混淆或误导那些将丰田视为电动汽车领域领导者的消费者。

一个广告活动显示，一辆丰田普锐斯在油箱盖或充电端口所在的后部附近被闪电击中，尽管它是混合动力车。这可能会误导消费者，让他们相信混合动力汽车可以外部充电，而混合动力汽车则利用汽车的汽油发动机作为发电机。另一个动画展示了一辆普锐斯驶过一小组太阳能电池板的动画，除非它是普锐斯 Prime，否则它无法从中受益。

《公众公民》还引用了雷克萨斯的广告活动，据报道该广告活动展示了几辆内燃机汽车，尽管广告描述了“电动”汽车。尽管雷克萨斯只有一款混合动力车和纯电动车，但该活动进一步推动了雷克萨斯对其产品阵容中内燃机车和电动车之间“平等”的关注。该报告引用了至少一项雷克萨斯广告活动背后的创意人菲利普·迪茨 (Philipp Dietz) 的话，他知道消费者将“电动”汽车视为“一种电动技术”——这可能意味着雷克萨斯知道消费者并不认为其混合动力汽车是真正的混合动力汽车。 “带电。”

公平地说，“电气化”一词长期以来一直指具有某种形式电气化的汽车（通常是混合动力汽车）。但投诉加倍强调，雷克萨斯在其网站上声称其混合动力汽车拥有“自充电电动动力系统”和“自充电电池”，这可能会误导那些不了解混合动力汽车的内燃机为汽车充电的消费者。电池。作为参考，该措辞因被认为具有误导性而在挪威被禁止。

丰田已经阐明了其对电动汽车向前发展的承诺，但情况并非总是如此。它的过去正是公众公民说丰田采用这些做法的原因——丰田决定专注于氢动力汽车而不是投资于电池电力是部分原因。

在这个能源快速转型的时代，丰田对电动汽车的策略“严重错误”。该公司在氢燃料电池的开发上投入了大量资金，而不是电池驱动的电动汽车，并继续加大氢燃烧的投入，尽管其他汽车制造商已经认识到这一战略“似乎不可行”。 2016 年，特斯拉（Tesla）——以及整个电动汽车销量——开始经历爆炸性增长。丰田汽车的长期首席执行官丰田章男 (Akio Toyoda) 因不喜欢电动汽车而闻名，他领导该公司近 14 年，于 2023 年 4 月辞职。在他的领导下，丰田显然直到 2022 年夏季才坚持认为，电动汽车的需求“几十年内都不会起飞”。

需要明确的是，截至今天，丰田尚未采取任何正式行动。投诉就是这样：投诉。然而，写这封信的组织提出了一些有效的观点。不过，过去也曾针对汽车制造商提出过有关营销条款的投诉（咳咳：特斯拉的自动驾驶仪和全自动驾驶），但都无济于事，所以这次投诉最终是否会导致行动还不得而知。

丰田对电动汽车的承诺是今年早些时候新任首席执行官佐藤浩二 (Koji Sato) 从丰田章男 (Akio Toyoda) 手中接任后的一个关键卖点。然而，十月份，佐藤降低了丰田对电动汽车的推动力度，指出该汽车制造商采用“多途径方法”，将在其车队中使用各种动力系统，而不仅仅是电气化动力系统。无论哪种方式，消费者法都要求丰田在不误导客户的情况下销售其车辆，无论它是否这样做，都可能很快导致联邦贸易委员会的调查。

原文

Toyota Slammed For 'Misleading' Public About EVs in FTC Complaint

The complaint cites an ad campaign banned in Norway for misleading consumers.

Dec 13, 2023 at 12:00pm ET

By: Rob Stumpf

A new complaint filed with the United States Federal Trade Commission accuses Toyota of misleading consumers about just how electrified they really are.

The accusation comes via an open letter from Public Citizen, which has requested that the FTC open an investigation into how Toyota markets its electrified vehicles. Specifically, it alleges that Toyota has intentionally misled consumers by exaggerating the capabilities of electrification of its current vehicle lineup in ad campaigns.

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Why is Toyota accused of deceiving the public?

Public Citizen says Toyota misled consumers by exaggerating the capabilities of electrification of its current vehicle lineup in ad campaigns. The group claims Toyota should be clearer about how hybrid, plug-in hybrids, and pure electric vehicles operate.

The complaint cites several Toyota marketing strategies, including its “Beyond Zero”, “Electrified Diversified,” and “To Each Their Own Electric” campaigns. In these ads, Public Citizen says that Toyota has made various statements and interpretations that could confuse or mislead consumers who see Toyota as a leader in the electrified vehicle space.

One ad campaign showed a Toyota Prius getting struck by lightning near the rear quarter where a gas cap or charge port would be located, despite it being a hybrid. This could mislead consumers by having them believe it can be externally charged whereas a hybrid utilizes the car’s gasoline engine as a generator. Another shows an animation of a Prius driving past a small array of solar panels, which, again, it cannot benefit from unless it’s a Prius Prime.

Public Citizen also cites a Lexus ad campaign that reportedly featured several combustion-powered cars despite the ad describing "electrified" vehicles. The campaign further pushes Lexus’ focus on “equality” between ICE and EVs in its lineup despite it only having one hybrid and BEV. The report cites Philipp Dietz, the creative behind at least one Lexus advertising campaign, knowing that consumers view “electric” vehicles as “one kind of electric technology”–which could mean that Lexus knows that consumers don’t view its hybrid vehicles as truly "electrified."

To be fair, the "electrified" term has long referred to cars with some form of electrification—typically hybrids. But the complaint doubles down by noting that Lexus claims its hybrids have a “self-charging electric powertrain” and a “self-charging battery” on its website, which could be misleading for consumers who do not understand that a hybrid’s combustion engine recharges the battery. For reference, this verbiage has been banned in Norway for being deemed misleading.

Toyota has spelled out its commitment to battery-electric vehicles moving forward, but that hasn’t always been the case. Its past is exactly why Public Citizen says Toyota has employed these practices—that Toyota’s decision to focus on hydrogen-powered vehicles rather than invest in battery-electric power is partly to blame.

In this era of rapid energy transition, Toyota has “substantially miscalculated” its approach to EVs. The company bet big on the development of hydrogen fuel cells over battery-powered electric vehicles, and has continued to double down on hydrogen combustion even as other automakers have recognized that this strategy “doesn’t seem feasible.”Toyota also dumped its stake in Tesla in 2016, just as that company—and EV sales in general—began to experience explosive growth. Toyota’s longtime CEO, Akio Toyoda, who led the company for almost 14 years before stepping down in April 2023, was well-known for his dislike of EVs. Under his leadership, Toyota apparently held the position as late as summer 2022 that demand for EVs “would not take off for several decades.”This failure to prioritize investments in electric vehicles has left Toyota far behind its rivals in this critical market, a cause for panic within the company beginning in the fall of 2022.

Now, to be clear, there isn’t any formal action being taken on Toyota as of today. The complaint is just that: a complaint. However, the organization that penned the letter has brought up some valid points. However, other complaints have been made against automakers in the past over marketing terms (cough: Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving) to no avail, so whether or not this complaint will ultimately result in action is unknown.

Toyota’s commitment to EVs is something that was a key selling point as its new CEO, Koji Sato, took the reins from Akio Toyoda earlier this year. However, in October, Sato downgraded Toyota’s push towards EVs, noting that the automaker had a “multi-pathway approach” where it would use various powertrains across its fleet—not just electrified ones. Either way, consumer law calls for Toyota to sell its vehicles without misleading its customers, and whether or not it did that could soon lead to an investigation by the FTC.