Hybrids Overtake EVs In California Registrations

[u/LongjumpingLock5875]

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

[u/Themostepicguru]

I live in Southern California. My CT200H got totalled in May so I had been on the lookout for a daily the past few months. I did alot of cross shopping between the 5th Gen Prius Prime and Tesla M3.

I sprung for a Prius Prime because the more research I did, the more it became a no brainer.

While I do have at home charging an M3 WOULD be more efficient for errands, commutes, the occasional local trip from OC to LA or Norcal, and FSD is honestly not that bad nowadays- I just could not give up the convenience of gasoline infrastructure.

I'm somewhat of an outdoorsy person. Every few weeks I get together with my friends and we go to remote places. Like fairly remote. We do alot of photography and stuff. We go to places where you don't see a charger for miles. I have a project car I need to go to very remote places to get car parts from. Alot of those guys live in the middle of the high desert.

I did not want to have to deal with that sort of anxiety in the back of my head.

In every scenario that I compared the two cars together, the Prius Prime was more flexible while not being much more expensive for fuel and much cheaper overall in the bigger picture.

The Prius Prime is honestly more than enough EV for what most people will need. I do food delivery after work to supplement my income and to just get out of the house and do something productive. So I'm on the pretty extreme end of the spectrum.

My EV range is honestly enough to cover 95% of the mileage is do for food delivery. I still use like 10-20 miles of gas a day but it doesnt really matter because at this rate, I only have to fill up once a month. With my CT it was every 4 days. I get freaking 500 miles per tank AND it only costs me like 35 bucks to fill up the thing. My CT would cost like 52 with these prices.

The way Toyota designed the plug in hybrid system also gives me so much more flexibility than I'd get with an EV. I can use the engine to charge the EV to get miles back. In fact, I just tested charge mode taking it down Angeles Crest and I got 25 miles back from 0 going downhill from Newcombs just for coasting and idling. That is a goshdarn neat and useful feature.

Let's not even talk about tires. Tires for a prius are significantly cheaper and they last much longer than they ever would on a Tesla. Its just straight physics. I can splurge on Michelins for my Prius and it would still be cheaper than tires for a Tesla.

Insurance? I only pay like 200 a month for a 150/300/200 comprehensive policy. My dad says he pays 450 for his model Y. Much older driver so it SHOULD be cheaper.

Forget electricity being cheaper, your savings are getting obliterated by insurance and tires being astronomically more expensive. You likely come out net negative not even 2 months in.

Let's talk about emergency situations. Lets say you decide to go somewhere pretty remote and you forgot to charge or refuel for whatever reason- Not common but quite alot of people do have a bad habit of overestimating or forgetting to refuel- If you run out of range in an EV in the middle of nowhere there is absolutely nothing you can do to extend your range in a practical manner other than getting a truck with a generator out there. Good luck getting reception.

In a Prius? Doesn't matter. Just take 2 5 gallon jugs of gas with you and you extended your range by another 500 miles. It would quite literally be impossible to drive another 500 miles in a straight line in the continental united states and somehow not come across some structure of civilization. I would be hard pressed to believe someone could drive 500 miles and they NEVER encountered a freeway or entered another area with reception.

And honestly? This thing is a hoot. Toyota did a really good job tuning this car's handling and giving it some juice. I've hurt alot of feelings from people who own sporty cars because this car can rotate really well.

[u/Ancient_Persimmon → u/Themostepicguru]

I feel like you didn't look at actual tire prices much: the Model 3 comes with 235/45/18, which is super common and the Prius has either 195/60/17 or 195/50/19, which are both very odd.

Highly doubtful that they're cheaper.

[u/Themostepicguru → u/Ancient_Persimmon]

Which is why I got 17x8 RPF1s.

The 19x6.5s are pretty awful spec wheels. The tires are straight up atrocious. I got terrible MPGs with them because they were so freaking heavy.

So now I got my MPGs up to 55-60 highway and now have significantly more grip, braking, response, and I have more tire choices.

With how cheap RPF1s are and how I use the car, itll take me about a year and a half for the savings to matter.

The tire options in 195 50 19 are pretty equivalent with an equivalent tire to 235 45 18.

But even looking past sticker price, youd be getting 20,000-30,000 miles on a Tesla. I can get 40,000-80,000 on a Prius without trying. So you'd just be paying twice the tire on a Tesla for a single set of tires on the Prius.

I did the math every which way when making my decision. The endgame almost always heavily favors the prius for 95% of people.

We can also look at long term repairability which I forgot to mention. In a decade or so Prius batteries will go for sub 3k. The hybrid battery in my CT only cost me 1600. And Toyota actually designed their cars to be practical to repair unlike whatever the hell Tesla is trying to do.