FTC complaint filed against Toyota over its false electrification claims
A new complaint with the FTC alleges that Toyota is engaging in false and misleading marketing of its vehicles, leading to consumer confusion over how “electrified” they really are.
Last month, we covered how Toyota’s greenwashing hasn’t really changed since its new CEO, Koji Sato, took over for Akio Toyoda.
Now, Public Citizen, the organization that we talked to for that story, has formally aired its grievances about Toyota’s tactics with the US Federal Trade Commission.
This is just an FTC complaint – the FTC has not yet opened or concluded an investigation. But the claims within the complaint are quite extensive, showing several examples of Toyota using misleading tactics to sow confusion about electric cars in the market.
The complaint lays out the argument that Toyota is far behind on EVs, that this threatens its market dominance and consumer loyalty, and that Toyota’s response has been to intentionally confuse customers about EVs and hybrids. It lays out the differences between EVs, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids, then describes several aspects of Toyota’s marketing of “electrified” vehicles that have intentionally confused those categories of vehicle.
False advertising is a tough claim to prove in the US, but it is still within the FTC’s purview to ensure that consumers are not misled. If a company makes claims that are misleading to reasonable consumers and have a material effect on the competition, the FTC can act to stop the company from making these claims.
Public Citizen alleges that Toyota’s claims are material and deceptive to reasonable consumers. It also argues that Toyota is unique in the amount of deceptive marketing engages in, and that it specifically has violated FTC’s “Green Guides,” a set of marketing guidelines intended to ensure that companies don’t market products as environmentally-friendly when they are not.
The complaint includes several specific advertisements that make Toyota seem like a leader in electric vehicles when it is not. These include:
- Images of a hybrid being shocked by a jolt of electricity, despite that conventional hybrids get all of their energy from gasoline.
- Images of a gas-powered hybrid driving next to solar panels (which can’t charge it) next to the words “carbon neutral” (which it is not).
- Using the word “range” to describe how far a hybrid can go on a tank of gas, instead of mpg as virtually all gas car advertisements do.
- A “To Each Their Own Electric” campaign, which includes several vehicles that run exclusively on gasoline.
- And the classic “self-charging hybrid” lie which got Toyota’s ads banned in Norway.
But the largest number of complaints involve the word “electrified,” which has been used as a weasel word by several manufacturers. It is often used to describe any vehicle that has an electric motor in it, but creates confusion in customers who don’t know the difference between conventional hybrids, that run fully on gasoline, and actual electric vehicles.
Toyota has used this word more than other brands – between claiming that it offers “more electrified vehicles than any other brand,” despite Toyota only having one full battery-electric vehicle; or its “electrified diversified” marketing campaign, suggesting that non-electric vehicles should somehow count as electric. While other brands do use the word in some announcements, they don’t generally craft entire marketing campaigns around it.
The complaint argues that these violations are harmful to the overall EV market, because they have created confusion among consumers and even industry sources, and that this is not a trivial violation because cars are typically the most or second most expensive thing that any person will own.
For these reasons, Public Citizen finishes out the complaint by asking the FTC to investigate Toyota’s marketing and develop specific guidance on EV marketing so that other companies cannot use the same tricks to mislead consumers about their products.
Electrek’s Take
We’ve made it clear many times, we’re not a fan of Toyota’s EV strategy. And a lot of the reason for that is their misleading marketing related to electric cars, which we’ve covered before here on Electrek.
The company has been one of the world’s biggest opponents to electrification and to better climate policy in general, on par with fossil fuel companies themselves.
And with a massive company – one of the world’s largest – actively opposing climate action and sowing doubt in an automotive market where it holds outsized influence, I think it’s easy to tell how this can be harmful to the world.
The FTC complaint itself (you can find a PDF of the complaint linked on this page) lists several examples that we hadn’t heard of, and makes Toyota seem pretty bad.
But Toyota’s inaction isn’t just harmful for the entire world, it’s also quite probably going to be harmful for the economy of Japan. Even if we ignore the terrible effects of climate change and pollution that Toyota has thrown its weight behind, its intransigence on EVs is likely to cost the Japanese economy trillions.
Toyota has a new CEO, and that new CEO joined the company on the thinking that he would be able to improve the company’s EV strategy. That hasn’t happened yet, and Toyota is up to its same old tricks – but it doesn’t have to be, and it can change. It’s about time it does so.
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Dodge is calling it the “world’s only” four-door muscle car. The four-door Dodge Charger Daytona EV will join the lineup for the 2026 model year, but that’s not the only change.
Dodge Charger Daytona EV adds four-door trim for 2026
Last week, we learned Dodge would not offer the entry-level Charger Daytona R/T in 2026. CEO Matt McAlear told Motor1, “Production of the Dodge Charger Daytona R/T is postponed for the 2026 model year as we continue to assess the effects of US tariff policies.”
It looks like Dodge has another idea. The four-door electric Charger officially debuted Wednesday during a first drive event in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
According to McAlear, the new sedan “embodies the same look and feel as the coupe, with the same widebody exterior, driver-centric interior, muscle car performance and standard all-wheel-drive capability, combined with four-door practicality.
The two and four-door models share a similar coupe-like design and a wide body (the widest of any car in the industry). Dodge said the four-door design only further accentuates the Charger’s powerful presence.
Like the two-door version, the four-door model arrives with a spacious “hidden hatch” interior, boasting best-in-class rear cargo and passenger space. With up to 38.5 cu ft of rear cargo space, the four-door variant offers 133% more than the outgoing Charger.
Meet the world’s only four-door muscle car
The interior features a 16″ infotainment system at the center with a 12.3″ driver display, featuring wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay capabilities.
Both two and four-door 2026 Charger Daytona Scat Pack models come with different drive modes (sport, track, drag, custom, etc.), Dodge’s Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust system, and Powershot (delivering an extra 40 hp for 10 seconds at the push of a button).
The available Track Package is the largest brake package offered for any Dodge vehicle. It adds 16″ Brembo vented rotors and red six-piston front/four-piston rear fixed calipers, which increase swept area by more than 30% compared to the outgoing SRT model.
With a level 3 charger, the 2026 Dodge Charger Daytona EV can recharge from 20% to 80% in as little as 24 minutes.
New “Fratzog dual stripes” and gloss paint hood options will be available on two and four-door 2026 Dodge Charger EV models.
For every 2026 Charger model (two- and four-door), Dodge is offering the chance to visit Radford Racing School for a day, the official high-performance driving school of Dodge and SRT.
Both variants offer “Hellcat Redeye levels of performance,” with 670 hp and 627 lb-ft of torque, capable of a 0 to 60 mph sprint in just 3.3 seconds.
Orders are now open for the four-door and two-door 2026 Dodge Charger Daytona EV and will begin arriving at dealerships later this year.
To make room for the 2026 models, Dodge is offering massive discounts, with up to $13,500 off on the outgoing Charger Daytona EV. If you’re interested, you can use our link to view 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona models near you today.
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All-electric, autonomous aircraft developer Wisk Aero announced a fresh five-year research partnership with NASA to establish advanced air mobility standards to eventually introduce autonomous aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS).
Wisk Aero is a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing based in California. The company’s flagship model, the Cora, is an all-electric aircraft that predates the Wisk Aero brand and has seen several generational variants over the seven years or so.
In 2020, Wisk Aero joined NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility Project, part of the space administration’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, to address key AAM industry challenges and lay the framework for future autonomous passenger flights.
Since then, Wisk and NASA have continued collaborating to develop key guidance for the safe integration of autonomous aircraft systems for urban air mobility (UAM) operations under that initial Space Act Agreement.
This week, Wisk Aero and NASA committed another five years to their research partnership. They hope to bring regulated and autonomous aerial flight to the public by the end of the decade.
Wisk and NASA extend partnership another five years
Wisk Aero shared details of its refreshed partnership with NASA this week. The autonomous aviation specialist has signed a new five-year Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) with the renowned space administration.
Per Wisk, this new agreement focuses on critical research led by NASA’s Air Traffic Management Exploration (ATM-X) project, which is centered around the advancement of commercialized autonomous aircraft travel under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) in the National Airspace System (NAS).
As a specialist in autonomous, zero-emission aircraft, Wisk intends to continue its research alongside NASA to help regulators determine future eVTOL flight procedures and capabilities in the US. Regulatory developments on the to-do list for the latest NRSAA include optimizing airspace and route designs for highly automated UAM operations, establishing critical aircraft and ground-based safety system requirements for autonomous flight in urban environments, and establishing Air Traffic Control (ATC) communication protocols and procedures for seamless integration of future UAM aircraft.
To achieve these goals, Wisk said its research with NASA will more specifically focus on utilizing advanced simulation and Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) flight environments, which combine live flights with a simulated airspace to enable researchers to assess future operations. Erick Corona, Director of Airspace Operational Integration at Wisk, elaborated:
This new, long-term agreement with NASA is a significant step forward for Wisk and the broader UAM industry. With NASA’s simulation and LVC capabilities, we can accelerate the development of our Gen 6 autonomous systems to safely and efficiently integrate into the US NAS before the end of the decade.
The teams from Wisk and NASA already met last month, continuing their research while beginning to determine how instrument flight procedures and advanced technologies can work together to enable safe autonomous passenger flights by 2030.
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Fluence Energy has officially started production at its new factory in Goodyear, Arizona, where it’s now cranking out steel enclosures and battery management system (BMS) hardware for its grid-scale energy storage systems.
This plant is part of the Washington, DC-headquartered global battery storage company’s larger push to build and source every major part of its battery energy storage systems in the US. The company’s domestic supply chain spans Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, and Utah, covering everything from battery cells and thermal systems to Fluence’s inverter supplier in South Carolina.
The partnerships represent around $700 million in investment and more than 1,200 manufacturing jobs in 2025 alone. Add another 450 construction jobs and growing, a significant economic spark.
John Zahurancik, president of Fluence Americas, says the rapidly expanded domestic supply chain helps customers steer clear of global supply chain snarls while ensuring the company’s systems stay safe, reliable, and cybersecure. “Enclosure and BMS production at the Goodyear facility is another strong step forward in this commitment,” he said.
The American Clean Power Association (ACP) recently unveiled the US energy storage industry’s bold plan to invest $100 billion into American-made grid batteries by 2030. The goal is to meet 100% of domestic energy storage demand using US-based supply chains and create 350,000 jobs in the process.
“Fluence is leading the way,” said ACP CEO Jason Grumet. “Their investment in Arizona – a national leader in energy storage – underscores the momentum behind expanding US manufacturing, strengthening energy security, creating high-quality jobs, and supporting key suppliers, including American steel.”
Fluence’s products will also be critical in helping to keep the grid stable as the demand for power rapidly increases. The company already has more than 20,000 megawatt-hours of battery storage deployed or in the pipeline across 80+ projects in the US.
“Our goal is to fully onshore production, as quickly as possible,” said Peter Williams, Fluence’s chief product and supply chain officer. “This facility brings us closer to that goal.”
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