Toyota’s plug-in hybrids emit four times more CO2 than company claims

Millions of well-meaning Toyota plug-in hybrid owners will be outraged to learn they’ve been burning through four times more petrol and producing four times more emissions than they were led to believe by the world’s largest automaker.

New data released by the European Union Environment Agency shows car makers are substantially overestimating the efficiency of their vehicles for petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid models.

The study, which uses real-world data on over half-a-million vehicles, found that car companies are underestimating CO2 emissions per kilometre driven by 19% for petrol vehicles and 15% for diesel cars.

However, it is hybrids where the WLTP (World Harmonised Light vehicle Test Procedure) figures, which are used by car companies for official specifications, are staggeringly out of sync with the actual real-world data collected by the European Union.

While the average WLTP CO2 emissions figure across 123,740 hybrids sold in the EU was just 39.59 g/km of CO2, the actual real-world average for those vehicles was 139.39 g/km. An enormous gap of around 100g/km with the real-world figure 3.5 times higher than the WLTP figure.

EU mandatory real-world vehicle emission data reporting shines light on false claims

Many may be surprised to learn that despite enormous amounts of real-world data collected by vehicle makers on fuel efficiency, it only became mandatory for carmakers to report real-world data in the European Union in 2021.

In most other countries around the world, including Australia, it’s still not mandatory at all.

“Pursuant to Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2019/631, the Commission is required to collect, from 2021, data on the real-world fuel or energy consumption of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles that are recorded by on-board fuel and/or energy consumption monitoring devices as provided for in Article 4a of Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1151,” states the EU regulation.

This is the first time the EU has released the data since it began mandatory collection from car makers in 2021, finally shining a light on the enormous discrepancies in efficiency and emissions intensity of virtually all vehicles.

“The following tables and graphs summarise and illustrate the first results of this monitoring exercise, based on an analysis of the data reported by vehicle manufacturers in 2022 as read-out from new vehicles first registered in 2021,” it says.

“They show average laboratory and real-world CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of those vehicles, along with the calculated gap between the average laboratory [WLTP] and real-world values.”

The agency has displayed the data per manufacturer, fuel type and for petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid vehicles separately.

Toyota’s plug-in hybrids produce four times the claimed emissions

While the average plug-in hybrid emits 3.5 times more than WLTP figures suggest, Toyota’s flagship “green” plug-in hybrids are even worse emitting over four times more CO2 than the company’s official figures claim.

The average WLTP figures on Toyota’s plug-in vehicles is just 22 g/km however the EU’s real-world data shows that the true figure is much closer to 93 g/km. This essentially means that Toyota’s true plug-in hybrid emissions are actually much closer to its average petrol car (127.5 g/km) than the company’s official plug-in hybrid figures.

Hybrid owners paying much more than they bargained for

Emissions aside, many plug-in hybrid owners are also paying much more to drive their vehicles than they are being led to believe by car makers.

Looking at the fuel consumption gap between the EU’s real-world data and carmakers WLTP claimed efficiency, plug-in hybrids are on average using an additional 4.24 litres of petrol per 100km.

Based the current petrol price in Australia of $2.23, that’s an extra $9.46 per 100 km that plug-in hybrid owners are paying in fuel costs than carmakers WLTP figures suggest.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says passenger vehicles in Australia drive around 11,100 km per year. Based on the additional $9.46 per 100 km, that’s an extra $1050 per year that plug-in hybrid owners in Australia are paying each year, than they would be expecting based on carmakers WLTP figures.

There are hundreds-of-thousands of plug-in hybrids on Australia’s roads, many of which are doing high milage as ride-share vehicles, however the EU real-world data shows that these vehicles aren’t really much different to regular petrol cars when it comes to fuel efficiency and vehicle emissions.

Fossil car companies like Toyota use terms like “electrified” to market their plug-in hybrid vehicles, effectively manipulating and confusing consumers by associating petrol burning plug-in hybrids with real electric vehicles.

Well-meaning consumers are being mislead by these claims and many governments even include plug-in hybrids in electric vehicle policies based on the misleading WLTP figures.

The new real-world data from the EU Environment Agency should be a wakeup call to governments to remove all incentives for plug-in hybrids and should be a trigger for plug-in hybrid owners around the world to launch class action cases against companies who’ve engaged in misleading consumers.