UK Bans Misleading "Zero Emissions" Claims for Electric Cars

The UK's advertising watchdog has ruled that electric car manufacturers, including BMW and MG Motors, cannot promote their vehicles as having "zero emissions". This decision considers the environmental costs of production and electricity generation for charging.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) highlighted an issue with a BMW advertisement from August 2023, stating that while electric cars produce no emissions while driving, emissions do occur during manufacturing and charging with grid electricity.

BMW attributed the "zero emission cars" label to an automatic keyword inserted by Google but has agreed not to use the claim in future advertising.

Similarly, ASA found an MG Motor ad misleading for stating "zero emissions" without adequately explaining the basis for this claim. The ad cannot be run in its original format again.

Critics, such as Colin Walker from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, find these rulings counterintuitive, especially amidst government campaigns encouraging electric vehicle adoption.

Walker notes that it is standard to evaluate vehicles based on exhaust emissions and discouraging the "zero emissions" marketing label seems counterproductive to environmental objectives.