Motor industry doubles spend on green ads

The motor industry doubled its spending on advertising its greenest cars in 2007 but overall spend is still biased towards the highest polluting vehicles, a new report says.

The survey for the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership shows that advertising spend on the most fuel-efficient vehicles (those in Vehicle Excise Duty bands A, B and C) jumped from 20% to 40%.

However, 52% of expenditure in 2007 went on vehicles in the highest polluting bands (E, F and G). Of that figure, 20% was spent on “gas-guzzling” 4x4s, despite them accounting for only 7% of sales.

The survey also found that just 12% of advertising messaging related to fuel efficiency and its impact on climate change.

The LowCVP, a partnership of businesses from the motor and fuel industries, is an advisory group formed to take a lead in accelerating the shift to low carbon vehicles and fuels. A LowCVP spokesman says: “We hope to move towards a situation in which advertising can better inform consumers of the environmental consequences of the car buying decisions they make.”

The EU is carrying out a public consultation on proposals to introduce further requirements on giving greater prominence to carbon emission information in all car advertising.