California vehicle statistics
What are the key numbers on California vehicles? 30,118,651 vehicles across 1,800 ZIPs. 4.8% are battery electric. Toyota is the largest named make, with at least 5,735,265.
The fleet
Covers vehicles mapped to California ZIPs unless a row says otherwise.
| Fact | Number | Source | How it was counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicles mapped to California ZIPsCovers 1,800 California ZIPs | 30,118,651 | California DMV | DMV counts whose ZIP matches a California ZIP area. Counts with no matched area, or with a point outside California, are left out. |
| Vehicles in the DMV fuel type fileCovers every retained row of the file | 31,141,961 | California DMV | Includes the counts that the map cannot place. |
| Make groups | 116 | California DMV | DMV make labels after cleaning, so spelling variants of one make count once. |
| Toyota vehicles | at least 5,735,265 | California DMV | A lower bound. The DMV pools a make where its count in one ZIP, model year and fuel group is below ten. |
| Honda vehicles | at least 3,495,176 | California DMV | A lower bound. The DMV pools a make where its count in one ZIP, model year and fuel group is below ten. |
| Ford vehicles | at least 2,782,865 | California DMV | A lower bound. The DMV pools a make where its count in one ZIP, model year and fuel group is below ten. |
| Vehicles whose make the DMV does not name | 3,470,400 (11.5%) | California DMV | Counted under Other/Unknown, because the make group is too small to name in that row. |
Fuel
Covers vehicles mapped to California ZIPs unless a row says otherwise.
| Fact | Number | Source | How it was counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gas vehicles | 24,253,606 (80.5%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
| Gas hybrid vehicles | 1,719,656 (5.7%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
| Battery electric vehicles | 1,437,960 (4.8%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
| Diesel and diesel hybrid vehicles | 1,180,996 (3.9%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
| Flex-fuel vehicles | 1,062,740 (3.5%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
| Plug-in hybrid vehicles | 417,160 (1.4%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
| Natural gas vehicles | 31,040 (0.1%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
| Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles | 13,017 (<0.1%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
| Other fuel vehicles | 2,476 (<0.1%) | California DMV | Fuel as the DMV file records it. The shares of all fuels add up to the mapped total. |
ZIPs
Covers 1,119 ranked ZIPs unless a row says otherwise.
| Fact | Number | Source | How it was counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highest battery electric share | 20.1% in Irvine 92618 | California DMV | Ranking set: 5,000+ residents and 2,000+ vehicles, fleet ZIPs removed. A make or model-year block that looks like a fleet is subtracted from both sides of the share. |
| Most light-duty vehicles per 100 residents | 135.2 in Rancho Santa Fe 92067 | California DMV and Census American Community Survey | Light-duty DMV count divided by the Census population estimate, times 100. Business vehicles count, so the rate can pass 100. |
| Households with no vehicleCovers all mapped ZIP areas | 7.1% | Census American Community Survey | Census estimate of households with no car, van or light truck available. It does not come from DMV counts. |
| Highest share of households with no vehicleCovers ranked ZIPs with 2,000+ households | 70.2% in San Francisco 94108 | Census American Community Survey | Census estimate. Small areas carry wide margins of error. |
Plug-in and fuel-cell vehicles
Covers 58 California counties unless a row says otherwise.
| Fact | Number | Source | How it was counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zero-emission light-duty vehicles | 2,212,876 | California Energy Commission | Battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. A separate source and snapshot from the DMV counts, so the two do not add. |
Cite this page
Coast of Cars, California vehicle statistics, https://coastofcars.com/statistics.
To cite one figure, link its row. Each fact name above is a link to its own row. Make counts are lower bounds, so quote them with "at least".