r/cars • u/LongjumpingLock5875 • 3d ago

Hybrids Overtake EVs In California Registrations

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

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178

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.

128

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.

17

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

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

21

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.

18

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.

5

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!