The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in Great Britain has legally demanded that Hyundai and Toyota stop showing their misleading electric car advertisements in the United Kingdom and Ireland after receiving numerous complaints from customers who said they were victims of a fraud.
The Guardian is reporting that many EV owners in Great Britain found the manufacturers’ claims regarding the charging times and the availability of high-power charging terminals misleading at best. In particular, Toyota had claimed that its bZ4X SUV reaches 80% charge in just 30 minutes of staying plugged into a 150kW charger. For its own part, Hyundai went even farther out, claiming that its Ioniq 5 needed 18 minutes to replenish its battery from a 350kW outlet.
After being showered with complaints, both automakers admitted that the numbers were obtained in ‘sterile conditions’ and that real-world charging performance depended on a wide range of other factors.
Another popular complaint was concerning the scant availability of fast charging stations. For example, ASA found that there were only seven 150kW chargers in entire Scotland, only two in Wales, and none in Northern Ireland. The situation is even worse with 350kW chargers, which are effectively non-existent for the average user.