Mercedes-Benz burned over climate change tweet
A Mercedes-Benz tweet showing off a shiny new red car left the company red in the face after it drew criticism for seeming to brag about high carbon emissions in the face of a European heatwave.
“If this summer wasn’t warm enough already, the Mercedes-AMG GLA 45 4MATIC will heat things up even more with this red-hot finish,” the tweet states, accompanied by three photos of the car and a brief statement about its carbon dioxide emissions of 193 g/km.
Twitter users were quick to criticize Mercedes for the tweet, which came a week after hot temperature records were broken across Europe by a heatwave that rose from the Sahara. One user compared the German automaker to The Onion, a satirical news source.
The company apologized in a follow-up to the original post.
“Folks, that was really not our finest hour,” the second tweet states. “We apologize sincerely. We’re working hard on the transformation of our car fleet. We aim for CO2-neutral mobility.”
The second tweet included a link to a blog post on parent company Daimler’s website discussing its efforts to have “a carbon-neutral new passenger car fleet in 20 years.”
Twitter users weren't buying it.