Porsche slapped for misleading Cayenne S Hybrid ad

Porsche's recent ad for the Cayenne S Hybrid makes a claim that hasn't gone over well with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK. As the ad states, "More performance, less fuel... The new Cayenne S Hybrid can even travel to a speed of 37mph without using its V6 petrol engine." We see nothing wrong with Porsche's ad, but the powers that govern potentially misleading advertisements don't like it one bit.

The ASA isn't thrilled about the portion of Porsche's ad that discusses traveling without using any fuel. The ASA believes Porsche is misleading buyers into believing that the Cayenne S Hybrid can be driven indefinitely at speeds below 37 miles per hour without using any gasoline. Clearly, this is not Porsche's intent with the ad, nor is this an actual capability of the vehicle. The ASA wants the ad reworked to include a clause indicating that the Cayenne S Hybrid can travel without using gas for a limited distance only. As the ASA states:

Although we understood that Porsche is unable to provide a definitive distance of travel using the electric motor only, we nonetheless considered that the ad should have made clear the car could only travel for a limited distance at up to 37 mph before it would need to engage the petrol engine. In the absence of that clarification, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.

[Source: Autoblog UK]