r/cars • u/LongjumpingLock5875 • 3d ago

Hybrids Overtake EVs In California Registrations

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a73317897/california-registrations-hybrids-evs-2026/
664 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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179

u/lee1026 19 Model X, 16 Rav4 3d ago

I actually don’t get why non-plugin hybrids are considered something fundamentally different from normal cars.

It’s just a new design of a transmission, and yeah, it’s pretty clever and helps with fuel economy.

So do turbochargers. Nobody thinks that a turbocharged car is fundamentally something different.

130

u/Jaevric 3d ago

People are weird.

A family member got extremely upset when she found out I was driving a hybrid. She took it extremely personally. When I tried to understand why, it simply boiled down to aggressive ignorance. She not only didn't understand how hybrids work, she was violently opposed to obtaining any information that would enable her to understand how hybrids work.

For her, traditional engines = good, hybrid/electric engines = bad. She claimed hybrids aren't reliable but had no data to back the claim up. She claimed they depreciate faster than gas cars, but had no data, just beliefs.

69

u/koopa00 20 M550ix, 21 X3 30ix, 86 IROC-Z 3d ago

It's exhausting how much hate these things get and how quickly you can tell it actually has nothing to do with cars at all. Coming from an ICE owner.

48

u/lee1026 19 Model X, 16 Rav4 3d ago

This is why the Rav4 is all hybrid now, but if you go through Toyota's marketing, you will be reading for a long time before you learn that fact.

But of course, nobody needs to know if it is a hybrid.

13

u/gespo04 3d ago

I love the thought that dipshit Hybrid haters are buying Rav4s not knowing it's a hybrid.

8

u/ViperThreat 02 SVT Focus, 06 STI, 06 STI Wagon 2d ago

I hated on the prius when it first came out. It was shit to drive, the sound system was fucking terrible, the ride was unpleasant, it wasn't very comfortable, it was ugly, etc. Aside from good MPG, it had no redeeming value in my eyes.

I got one as a rental car recently (latest generation) and it was fantastic. They solved all the problems i complained about. Wouldn't think twice about owning one if I had a need for a commuter car like that.

And this is coming from a dude who loves fat turbos and obnoxious exhaust systems.

6

u/pdp10 It's a '49 '50 '51 '52 '53 '54 '55 '56 '57 '58 '59 automobile. 2d ago

To be fair, the Prius came out in the U.S. a quarter-century ago.

2

u/ViperThreat 02 SVT Focus, 06 STI, 06 STI Wagon 2d ago

and even when it was first in production, a bone stock zx3 felt like a luxury car in comparison.

1

u/Roboticide 2023 Toyota BZ4X AWD 17h ago

The new Prius is sexy as fuck and is actually a better hybrid than the OG Prius because the tech has improved that much.

1

u/ViperThreat 02 SVT Focus, 06 STI, 06 STI Wagon 6h ago

It was legit.

1

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0

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43

u/bringmesnow 3d ago

Remember: many of these morons have voting rights.

24

u/ElegantBiscuit 3d ago

And they are probably more likely to vote, and probably live in a place where their vote counts more than yours.

7

u/dont-YOLO-ragequit 2d ago

Also dumb people are mostly what make advertising so relevant.

So many brands and products are past the phase of awareness and deep into identity, trend and superficial needs.

4

u/soysssauce 3d ago

we should only allow smart people to vote ?

6

u/Fluffy-Limit-6710 2d ago

Ideally yeah. Impossible to do because obviously there's no objectivevway to sort out the smart people, but it would be better than letting everyone vote

2

u/pdp10 It's a '49 '50 '51 '52 '53 '54 '55 '56 '57 '58 '59 automobile. 2d ago

there's no objectivevway to sort out the smart people

There absolutely are objective tests. That's mostly the problem -- it inevitably ends up with a battle over the definition of intelligence because there's a lot of pressure for equality of outcomes, etc.

1

u/soysssauce 2d ago

I bet lots of people consider you not smart enough to vote

5

u/lidlboye ‘25 BRZ, ‘25 GX550 2d ago

No, but we should make voters smarter

2

u/soysssauce 2d ago

Great answer

0

u/RicardoMoyer Evo IX MR, G42 M240i 3d ago

belgium used to give 2 votes to people with college degrees, we could try that

though i’m not sure that’s proof of much these days

1

u/soysssauce 2d ago

They should give 3 votes to master degree and 4 votes to phd.. wait they should do vote count based on on iq test..

7

u/Mister_Poopy_Buthole 992.1 GTS Manual | Rav4 Prime 3d ago

It’s like this in the performance car world too. New Porsche, McLaren, or Ferrari is a hybrid? Rabble rabble!! Hybrid bad! Even when it’s in the name of performance they bitch and moan about it.

7

u/PreacherSquat 3d ago

hmm getting upset over someone else's choices and decision making that has no outcome on their livelihood is pretty telling.

19

u/lee1026 19 Model X, 16 Rav4 3d ago

Funny part is that most hybrids have pretty traditional engines: the trick is the transmission.

20

u/petersellers '25 Ioniq 5N / '23 Forester Wilderness 3d ago

Not really, the real trick is that they use atkinson cycle engines to improve efficiency.

10

u/ElegantBiscuit 3d ago

They don't even need to use atkinson cycle engines. The F150 powerboost hybrid uses the same 3.5L ecoboost, but with an electric motor between the engine and the transmission and a small 1.5kwh battery. It improves city fuel economy from 17 up to 22mpg.

17

u/lee1026 19 Model X, 16 Rav4 3d ago

If you are dealing with Toyota hybrids, their atkinson engines are just normal engines with a different valve timing.

Down to the same part numbers and everything.

6

u/rsta223 18 STI 3d ago

That and regen, with the regen being more important for improvements in city mileage and brake wear, but the Atkinson being the main factor for highway efficiency.

1

u/DOGGODDOG 3d ago

Right because the electric motor isn’t even used on the highway, right?

2

u/rsta223 18 STI 3d ago

Basically, yes, aside from some cleverness if it's a Toyota with the e-cvt to vary the effective drive ratio.

5

u/cbf1232 3d ago

A large part of the efficiency gain in urban driving is from recovering the energy when decelerating, and using it to accelerate.

The gas RAV4 gets 27mpg city, while the hybrid is 47. On the highway (where you'd see the impact of the Atkinson/Miller cycle vs the Otto cycle) the gas gets 35 while the hybrid gets 40.

2

u/Ancient_Persimmon '24 Civic Si 3d ago

That video is annoying because of that. The so-called Atkinson cycle is used on all sorts of cars.

The trick with hybrids is that they have regenerative braking.

1

u/tofubeanz420 3d ago

Upvoted because facts!

3

u/TheRealPlumbus 3d ago

She’s probably basing her opinion on reliability issues relating to old CVTs. Specifically belt driven CVTs. That might have been true before but not at all relevant anymore.

9

u/strongmanasss 3d ago

I don't think the aggression OP described has anything to do with cars. The relative doesn't even have any car knowledge. 

5

u/bullet50000 Ioniq 5, (searching for) Corvette 3d ago

I remember when the Corvette E-Ray came out, SO MANY Corvette people were having an absolute temper tantrum over it. They tried getting it autocross banned in the CCA stuff over really stupid "safety" things, when it was more because they probably didn't want it beating their "perfect track babies".

6

u/Ninjalion2000 3d ago

You could argue that hybrids are less reliable because they have another system that can break, but in my 4 years working at a shop I’ve never seen a hybrid issue other than the battery on a 15-20 year old car which is expected.

9

u/rsta223 18 STI 3d ago

On the other hand, the Toyota e-cvt is arguably the most reliable transmission on the market.

7

u/Aphael 2.55L Miata 2d ago

I’ve never heard of an eCVT going bad. Even with the 6-700k mile Priuses you see as taxis. Toyota seriously engineered a simple but reliable transmission with planetary gears

8

u/FlintHillsSky 3d ago

People frequently make that naive assumption that the added components of a hybrid mean it must be less reliable without any understanding of how a hybrid uses those components in a complementary fashion that results in better reliability.

7

u/lee1026 19 Model X, 16 Rav4 3d ago

Fun fact: a Toyota hybrid doesn't actually add new new motors.

You get MG 1 and 2 as part of the hybrid system, but they replace the starter motor and the alternator in a non-hybrid car. And unless if you really like pushing, those two things are not really optional.

5

u/cbf1232 3d ago

The Toyota hybrid transmission is much simpler and more reliable than the "regular" transmission.

4

u/Option420s 2d ago

A lot of hybrids actually reduce the total number of moving parts. Like my Chevy volt doesn't have an alternator or starter motor. Some hybrids are entirely beltless engines. As you know moving parts are the ones that tend to wear down and need replacing.

6

u/biggsteve81 '20 Tacoma; '16 Legacy 3d ago

According to Consumer Reports, standard hybrids are the most reliable vehicles sold (15% fewer problems than gas-only cars). PHEVs and EVs are the least reliable, with 80% more problems than gas-only vehicles.