Lexus Glove Slaps BMW and Electric Cars

2014 Lexus CT 200h (Credit: Lexus)

There is an old Simpsons episode where Homer goes to see Zorro and learns about glove slapping another man to challenge him to a duel. As the ever-observant person that he is, Homer begins glove slapping pretty much anyone just so he can get his way. Sadly, Lexus is starting to look more and more like Homer after releasing yet another commercial attacking electric cars, with the help of Funny or Die.

The Lexus anti-electric car ad runs over five minutes and really drives home the point that electric cars are slow, inconvenient to own, and overall inferior. A group of guys venture from California to Las Vegas in a Lexus CT 200h and BMW i3. Of course, the guys who are in the Lexus arrive hours before those who take the BMW, because supposedly it takes hours to charge the electric car. The poor range also means the i3 has to stop repeatedly so its battery can be replenished.

Of course, there are some big problems with the commercial. Lexus has set up a complete straw man to make its position look better than it is. The fact is that the i3 can charge fully in three hours using a 240-volt Level 2 charger. Hooking the car up to a DC fast-charger shortens that time to 20 or 30 minutes. The fact that the i3 can be had with a range-extending gasoline engine was also ignored. The whole thing smacks of propaganda.

Toyota and Lexus have been pioneers in hybrid powertrain technology, offering a wide array of models that promise excellent fuel economy. While it might seem that such an automaker would be more than onboard with fully-electric powertrains, the exact opposite is true. Despite having partnered with Tesla to create an electric version of the RAV4, the Japanese automaker recently sold off its stock in the California company while executives say that nobody wants it to build electric models. It’s pretty obvious that Toyota finds electric cars to be a threat, otherwise it wouldn’t keep going out of its way to attack them.