Toyota Keeping Fossil Fuels Alive with “Electrified Diversified” Marketing Campaign
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday, Toyota Motor North America announced its “electrified diversified” marketing campaign aimed at selling the company’s low- and zero-emissions vehicles. East Peterson-Trujillo, senior clean vehicles campaigner with Public Citizen’s Climate Team, issued the following statement.
“Toyota hit a new low today in its panicked attempt to slow the transition to zero-emission vehicles while pretending it’s onboard. The company’s new “electrified diversified” marketing campaign confusingly relabels as “EVs” a number of cars that use fossil fuels. Calling vehicles with combustion engines “EVs” is greenwashing, and is a blatant effort to mislead consumers who typically understand an EV to be a fully electric vehicle, not one that pollutes from a tailpipe.
“Over 50% of global car buyers are in the market for an electric vehicle, and Toyota’s own failure to get more than one deeply flawed electric vehicle on the market cannot be passed onto the consumer with misleading marketing. Toyota must end the production of fossil-fueled vehicles, including hybrid gas-electric cars, to meet climate targets. And it must stop misleading consumers about its current offerings.”
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