As electric cars have made inroads in the market, a California study shows they have largely replaced conventional hybrids, not straight-up internal combustion cars.

It's an important question, because hybrids were expected to fill the gap, improving efficiency in bigger cars and introducing more conservative buyers to electric driving, as battery technology improved to make bigger electric cars affordable.

Last week, we asked our Twitter followers whether they think electric cars will push hybrids out of the market, and how long they think that might take.

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Our Twitter poll question was: "Will electric cars eliminate conventional hybrids from the market?" The possible choices included a range of years—three, five, or 10—or the possibility that electric cars will replace conventional cars instead, implying that hybrids may continue to make up a percentage of the market.

Taken together, 81 percent of our respondents agree with the California New Car Dealers Association's report that electric cars will displace hybrids within 10 years. Of those, a majority (41 percent of the total), expect hybrids to be around that long.

Another 29 percent of the total expect the transition to happen in five years.

Relatively few respondents—11 percent—thought hybrids will disappear in three years, by 2021.

The remaining 19 percent of the total, who said electric cars will replace plain internal combustion cars rather than hybrids, represented the second lowest vote score in our poll.

As always, remember that our Twitter polls are unscientific because of their low sample size and because our respondents are self-selected.