The CA DMV license database has an MP " motive power" data field on your registration certificate and title. A gasoline powered vehicle will show "G" while a hybrid vehicle will show "Q". I first became sensitized to this issue when the DMV kept asking me for a smog check on my 2001, although hybrids currently are exempt from a smog check. I finally figured out that the problem was that the MP field had a G in it, so I got this corrected earlier this year. My HiHy registration is up for renewal in June, and I noticed that the MP field was marked G as well. So I got that corrected at the Laguna Hills DMV today. The process is as follows: drive to the DMV office and have a DMV inspector fill out a vehicle verification form, ensuring that s/he enters Q in the motive power spot on the form. Then take the form, your certificate of title, and the registration renewal form into the office, get a number, and wait to be called. Then tell the DMV clerk that you want to have the MP field corrected to Q. Pay your annual registration fees, then you will receive a new license registration and license plate sticker. The new certificate of title will be mailed in a few weeks from Sacramento. Besides not being subject to smog checks for gasoline-powered vehicles, a side benefit of getting this corrected is that you no longer have to pay the $12 annual smog abatement fee that is assessed to vehicles new enough so that they do not require the biennial smog check.
