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The Volkswagen ID.4 is the most popular electric car in Ireland Volkswagen

Watchdog warns about electric car 'zero emissions' claims

Volkswagen said it would include a disclaimer in future advertising if repeating the “zero driving emissions” claim.

THE ADVERTISING WATCHDOG has warned that marketing claims that battery-electric vehicles have “zero driving emissions” need to be explained.

The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) was responding to a complaint about a television advertisement for Volkswagen’s ID.3 and ID.4 electric cars.

In the ad, Volkswagen claimed that it makes “all-electric cars with zero driving emissions”. However, the complainants, who have not been named by the ASAI, argued that every car emits tyre particles and brake pad particles.

Responding to the complaint, Volkswagen told the ASAI that the term “emissions”, when used in the context of car advertising, was “widely accepted and understood by consumers to refer to emissions emanating directly from the source of power of the vehicle”. In petrol and diesel cars, that meant exhaust emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which battery-powered vehicles did not emit.

However, the carmaker added that it wanted to promote transparency on the topic of emissions, so it pledged to include a disclaimer alongside any claim of “zero driving emissions”in future advertisements. This disclaimer would clarify that driving emissions referred to exhaust emissions. 

The ASAI said it considered this to be an appropriate response. It said its complaints committee ”considered that consumers’ understanding of the claim would generally relate to tailpipe emissions”. However, “it was, as an unqualified claim, not correct and had the potential to mislead”. 

The ASAI said that where “zero driving emissions” claims are made, appropriate disclaimers should be linked to these claims, and it urged advertisers to take care when making absolute claims in marketing communications. The watchdog confined itself to issuing this advice, stopping short of upholding the complaint.

Volkswagen Ireland / YouTube

The ID.4, an SUV with a €44,000 price tag, has been by far the bestselling new electric car in Ireland since 2021. Almost 2,000 were sold in the first five months of this year, according to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. It is also the most popular car on Done Deal.

Tyre wear and tear is a significant source of harmful particulate pollution in the environment. It contributes to microplastic pollution of rivers and seas, while the smallest particles become airborne and can be breathed in.

Earlier this year, researchers at Imperial College London warned that even though electric vehicles removed the problem of fuel emissions, six million tonnes of tyre pollution released globally each year remained to be addressed. Because electric vehicles tend to be heavier, this might result in increased tyre wear. 

The ASAI has received several complaints about carmakers’ environmental claims in recent years, upholding complaints against firms including Toyota and Land Rover. Last year, it upheld another complaint against Volkswagen in relation to its marketing of the  ID.3 and ID.4, after the carmaker described these as “carbon neutral” in a radio advertisement.

The complainant said electric cars were not carbon neutral when charged using electricity generated from fossil fuels and the ASAI concluded there was “no guarantee” the vehicles would be carbon neutral while being charged.

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    Mute Jarlath Murphy
    Favourite Jarlath Murphy
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:18 AM

    Giving them away according to the vulture funds who purchased them at 21 cents in the euro! Keep the Recovery going! Or keep the recovery recovering! #Election 2017

    143
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    Mute Peter Cavey
    Favourite Peter Cavey
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 1:29 AM

    @Jarlath Murphy: a bargain these days in south Dublin is 500k for a 2 bed apt.

    65
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    Mute Scorpionvenomm
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 6:43 AM

    @Jarlath Murphy: I’ll wait for the next crash before I buy

    92
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    Mute Mick Tobin
    Favourite Mick Tobin
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:28 AM

    Well at that rate everyone’s going to end up being travelers.

    130
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    Mute Seamus McSpud
    Favourite Seamus McSpud
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 8:37 AM

    @Mick Tobin: as in have everything paid for including housing.
    Well also be able to shout and roar through A&E to get seen before the taxpayer saps.
    I’m good with that

    55
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    Mute Barney Mooney
    Favourite Barney Mooney
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 10:48 AM

    @Seamus McSpud:
    The real parasites reside at the top of the pyramid in areas like banking. For example, most people are completely unware that the nation states authorize their commercial banks to create money from nothing and charge interest on it.

    All commercial banks create new money from nothing each and every time they issue a loan. Around 97% of the money in circulation in the world today is created electronically by the commercial banks when they issue loans. In issuing credit, banks simultaneously create a brand new deposit in the recipients bank account.
    Quite simply, the loan itself creates new money. The banks bring this new money into existence by pressing a computer keyboard, nothing more. Money doesn’t grow on trees but if you hold a banking license it grows on your IBM. The money is extinguished/retired as the borrower pays back the loan and the outstanding principal amount falls. The bank of course gets to charge interest on the loan which it created with a casual wag of a finger. This interest which the borrower must also find is not extinguished but is held by the bank as retained profits.
    The bank is only authorized by the state to create new money in order to meet a loan request and cannot simply add the money to their balance sheet in a single entry as profit. When a bank issues a new mortgage for €200k for example, the mortgage loan is entered on the Asset side of the bank balance sheet while the newly created deposit of €200k appears on the Liability side of the balance sheet. This is how the new money is recorded in the double entry accountancy system. €200k of new money has now been brought into existence which didn’t exists before the bank created it. The bank deposit is then sent out into circulation in the economy when the builder or seller is paid for the house for example.
    For most people, the biggest purchase of their lives will be the family home and so the mortgage will be the largest debt they ever undertake. A bank can create a €200,000 mortgage in a couple of seconds with a few keystrokes. Over a term of 25 years at an interest rate of 4% to 5%, you will pay somewhere between €110k and €150k in interest payments to the bank on top of the principal repayment. This means that a person on an average annual wage of €25k net will work for 4 to 6 years and hand every single cent that they earn in that time to the bank to repay interest on the money which the bank created from nothing in a matter of seconds.
    This is the enormous power that has been granted to the private banks which they have used to massively exploit the rest of us through the debt mechanism. The banking function needs to be taken from the failed, endemically corrupt and grossly profiteering parasite banks and returned to the rightful democratic control of the people.

    http://positivemoney.org/how-money-works/how-banks-create-money/

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    Mute Ronan Sexton
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 1:26 PM

    Excellent. We can then go ahead and marry our cousins.

    1
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    Mute Dean Burroughs
    Favourite Dean Burroughs
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:51 AM

    Crash coming, 197,000 empty houses in the country and yet there is a lack of property, remember that when the bust comes. FG/FF lining their own pockets.

    140
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    Mute Alan Brogan
    Favourite Alan Brogan
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 2:10 AM

    @Dean Burroughs: mo

    8
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    Mute Alan Brogan
    Favourite Alan Brogan
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 2:10 AM

    @Dean Burroughs: mo

    6
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    Mute O Swetenham
    Favourite O Swetenham
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:33 AM

    My great grandad won his house in Dublin after winning a (legally binding) game of twister in 1904. €230,000? I simply cannot afford that. I’ve decided I’m going to live in the forest for the rest of my life.

    116
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    Mute Chris Kirk
    Favourite Chris Kirk
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:35 PM

    @O Swetenham: There is nothing wrong with living in the sticks…..

    6
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    Mute Roisin O'Connell Hayes
    Favourite Roisin O'Connell Hayes
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 8:14 AM

    I’m giving sinn fein a vote in the next election. A lot of their TDs have sent back there pay increase..there worth 1 term to try something new..FF/FG have been in too long.we will never have change unless we vote change. Most of the cost to build a house is tax.lower the tax and make sure the builder passes on the saving or fine him.this is a way to reduce prices so many can not afford to get the deposit together while renting.

    91
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    Mute prop joe
    Favourite prop joe
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 6:52 AM

    I feel sorry for anyone living in Dublin. Pay isn’t that much better yet rent or buying a roof over your head is out of reach. Well Noonan you’ve ripped off another generation.

    113
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    Mute sparky
    Favourite sparky
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:19 AM

    Why do I feel like that this is a ” deja vu ” except the Lpt comes into play now…

    84
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    Mute Gerard Heery
    Favourite Gerard Heery
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 3:42 AM

    @sparky: enda said ” ah sure it’s only 2 euro a week” coniiving b#####d

    58
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    Mute John O'Driscoll
    Favourite John O'Driscoll
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:26 AM

    Country’s broke bankrupt and borrowing to pay the nine billion euro interest alone on our two hundred billion bankster bailout of nasty dead-tree euro-money thingummies printed up and sold in exchange for Irish sovereign and indefensible destines..

    Vin Mises 101: “Countries that cannot tax or borrow their way out of trouble have to devalue their currencies. That way lies hyper-inflation.”

    Anyone notice their insurance increasing unaccountably? Never got a penalty point nor cause an accident in your life? Snap. Insurance companies are the nearest we got to Nostradamus in hard pounds shillings and pence terms. House prices, insurance prices, all increasing in a bankrupt country.

    Now might be a good time to make contacts in payroll divisions and corner the maker in wheelbarrows.

    82
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    Mute John O'Driscoll
    Favourite John O'Driscoll
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:32 AM

    “Von” not “Vin” sorry going a little 2 fast and 2 furious there.

    28
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    Mute Chris Kirk
    Favourite Chris Kirk
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:39 PM

    @John O’Driscoll: Think yourselves lucky that you don’t have to pay rates on a modest house like they do up north. In excess of £1000 per annum.

    1
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    Mute The Unknown Souldier
    Favourite The Unknown Souldier
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 1:34 AM

    “The combined effect of the tweaks to Central Bank mortgage rules and the new help-to-buy scheme has been to significantly stimulate first-time buyer demand. This is seen in renewed house price growth, particularly in and around the major cities”.

    So from that statement, it appears as if the Central Bank “tweaks” increased demand and that demand was met with the prices rising? This would lead me to believe that the more the desperation to get a house increases, the more unlikely affording one becomes for the majority of people.

    I must be naive, i just don’t get how that’s progress. I don’t understand how that can end any other way but badly.

    64
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    Mute Cathal
    Favourite Cathal
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:32 AM

    Keep voting in Coppinger and Murphy and the “sure the working man deserves everything for free” brigade. They’re the real solutions people. Populist champagne socialist “get me reelected” nonsense

    73
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    Mute goon4life
    Favourite goon4life
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 1:10 AM

    @Cathal: what the f*ck you talking about their not the ones in government and have been in government since the beginning of the state, that would he FG/FF

    115
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    Mute Willy Malone
    Favourite Willy Malone
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 6:17 AM

    This is no coincidence. This is how FF FG operate. High prices suit elite society. Affordable means little profit. As with health, a working Heath service would mean private health would not be able to jump the low life! Nearing 100 years of FF and FG now. Is it not time to rid ourselves of these parasites. Bankers tax after bankers tax to keep the status quo. Raise for them again yesterday… How much more ?

    73
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    Mute Thomas Roche
    Favourite Thomas Roche
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 8:36 AM

    The average mean income in ireland is around 18- 19 grand. That means most people earn 18-19 grand a year. Don’t mind what the unions tell you about it been around 39 grand. They can’t tell you this otherwise they couldn’t justify looking for pay increases for their higher paid members. Now multiply 3 by 18-19 grand and try buy a house out of your answer…………there’s another property crash on the way people.

    48
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    Mute Kal Ipers
    Favourite Kal Ipers
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 8:56 AM

    Except you are ignoring the people who do earn enough to buy property. Averages and means have no meaning to the people that can buy. There has been a massive change in Ireland as it becomes more like the rest of the world. We had the highest home ownership in the world before the last crash. Now the reality is not everybody will be able to buy a property.
    A crash is not an inevitability demand is high and there is a lack of supply. There were too many houses being built before but now we aren’t close to meeting demand and it will take decade to catch up. When was the crash before the last one? How far apart are crashes?

    10
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    Mute Cillian McCormick
    Favourite Cillian McCormick
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:23 AM

    Ah sure Coveny’s on the job. It’s grand.

    45
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    Mute B9xiRspG
    Favourite B9xiRspG
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 1:26 AM

    @Cillian McCormick: it be all sorted by July

    21
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    Mute Vincent Bickerstaffe
    Favourite Vincent Bickerstaffe
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:21 AM

    I believe in honesty , give me a house..let me pay as much as I can as I can’t take it with me & averages is for the immortals.. Good night

    24
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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
    Favourite Suzie Sunshine
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:40 AM

    Or you could just go on the housing waiting list ….

    21
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    Mute Niall Moran
    Favourite Niall Moran
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 2:38 AM

    Fantastic…..

    14
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    Mute Padraig
    Favourite Padraig
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 12:29 AM

    Any talk about houses,adds about houses etc should be banned.Will we ever fuc*ing learn.

    56
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    Mute Colm O'Sullivan
    Favourite Colm O'Sullivan
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 11:57 AM

    Unless you’re from Dublin or based there a long time, you’re a mug for wanting to move there. Don’t get me wrong, I like the place but prices are ridiculous and I don’t get people’s obsession with wanting to join the rat race, paying 300k for a box apartment in some place like Rialto or Kimmage.

    Places like Limerick, Killarney, Sligo, etc offer much better value for money and as good a standard of living.

    11
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    Mute margaret donohoe
    Favourite margaret donohoe
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 9:40 AM

    Im gonna buy a wendy house and live in it

    7
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    Mute Finnster
    Favourite Finnster
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    Apr 2nd 2017, 8:39 AM

    Your damned if you do and damned if you don’t when it comes to this whole housing / house buying

    10
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