Featured Honda Clarity Plug-in

Yes it does remind me of the flying bridge which I didn't like in our 2015. I have claustrophobia and I felt confined in the Prius. The Clarity console is lower and less of an issue. Still I think the design sucks.

The other thing is the lousy design of the pass-through from the trunk with the back seats down. Honda could have left out the entire structure behind the seats, making much more cargo space, and allowing a much bigger opening when the seats are down. Cargo space was a very big issue when we were looking for a new car. The Clarity had so many other positive aspects that we had to accept the crappy cargo design and live with it. We already wanted to transport 4 small kitchen chairs. Only two fit in the trunk. The other two went in the back seat. These wouldn't have been a problem in the Prius. I guess what I really want is a hatchback Clarity.

Yes homelink. The picture was before I set it up. Homelink works fine.

The truth is we love the car. First and foremost is how quiet it is; we remark about the quiet every time we ride in the car. Then the fact that we are driving to all of our regular places around town with zero gas use is superb. The roof solar will be installed in about two weeks. After that we will have many days when the car is fully charged with solar (Redding is the second sunniest cities in the United States after Yuma AZ), and fuel for the car will be free. In the summer when the house A/C runs day and night we will have to pay for grid electricity, but when the A/C kicks off, in it's normal cycle of on...off throughout the day, it will again be free.

 

agreed. i don't know if it's carb rules or what. i'm still waiting for a reasonably priced plug in with decent hatch or trunk space.
perhaps making the battery large enough for the $7,500. tax credit prohibits that at this time.

 

For a sedan, the Clarity's trunk is on par with mid size ICE models; you are just giving up the spare tire.
The PHEV also has a larger trunk than the FCEV. The hydrogen tank sat behind the rear seats. The pass through could be compromised by structure designed for that tank.

 

@jdonalds has done a great job reviewing the Clarity, so I'll try to just fill in my first day impressions around his comments. One emphasis, which I knew going in, was I hate the flying bridge - our 2018 Odyssey shifter design is far superior and wastes much less space. One other thing it is missing - wireless phone charging - I love that on my wife's Odyssey.

Here's hoping that GM, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and the others with significant EV R&D going will lobby hard to keep the credit - because it is the very reason I (and others I suspect) have jumped on the Clarity and Prius Prime wagons - right now the fuel cost savings alone wouldn't make up the difference, and if we are serious as a country about electrification, this is where to start. Remember, I live right in the middle of the Texas oil patch, and it was a Republican, George Bush, who signed the original legislation. FYI - we are leading the nation in wind power development as well. We chose not to risk the credit disappearing so that's why I jumped on this one, or we would have waited until later net year to see what first impressions were reported.

Enough pontificating: having owned three Prius' (two of which are still with our kids), the Clarity is by far the most comfortable, quiet, and best appointed interiors of all. In fact, I agree with some reviewers that say the Clarity interior is "Acura-like." We bought the Modern Steel Metallic with the black interior - beautiful. As for driving experience, we are still under 100 miles, but the summary is: (1) pure EV driving is easy to accomplish, snappy, and a very quiet ride; (2) if you are coming from a Prius, your light touch on the accelerator and coasting to a stop at red lights will add a good number of miles to the projected EV mileage (just drove to work, a mere 7 mile commute, and it said I used 4 miles on the battery gauge); and (3) it is so much larger (inside and out), more luxurious, and the EV range is so much better, that Toyota and Chevy better up their game significantly with Prius Prime II and Volt III.

Two last comments - (1) ALL of these manufacturers are missing the ballgame with such limited availability of these PHEV's - I never could snag a blue Prius Prime, (without having to go to NY and drive it back 2000 miles), otherwise I would have been in a Prime - actually I'm glad for it, but you can't get a Clarity or Volt either right now; and (2) write your Senators and pump them up about preserving the tax credit.

 

I am | <-> | this close to jumping in, love both the emerald and the crimson colors. I think I can live with either touring or non-touring, especially since the car has CarPlay and I can use AppleMap app. What I'm most interested in is the ability to stay in EV mode. When I've driven the car, I always seem to miss the detent and push it into HV or whatever their combo mode is. I asked the salesperson about locking EV in - or HV out, but she really didn't know what I meant. "Oh, it just picks the best combination for mileage." Meh. Not helpful.

So I'm interested in knowing what you think about the EV aspects of the car. Is it like a pip where if you sneeze it'll pop into HV or can you drive the Clarity strictly in EV without a lot of thought. The dealer near me expects a Crimson on Friday, but can't tell me what trim level. They also have a emerald, it's the lower trim level. I'm also not sure the 'extras' are such a big deal in this vehicle. Power seats seemed about the only thing that really made a big difference. Seat trim and the suede looked nice, but I could live without it and not feel much remorse.

I have one of the first Pips (2012), so almost anything will be a nice upgrade to my current 9 mile EV range. Also, I wonder if you have noticed a maximum speed in EV yet. For example, you know that as soon as you hit 62.5MPH/100kph a Pip pops into HV and you're done on EV until the engine warms up to 130ºF. Prime apparently fixed that - at least allowing speeds in EV up to 75 mph (I think).

However, the EV max speed is something else they couldn't tell me when I drove it last week. Thanks.

 

Both levels have homelink - it's located on the upper control panel near the o'head light. Honda uses the mirror space for their sensing system, so there's already a bunch of garbage in that spot. I had the same question - was gonna be a deal breaker - LOL - but seriously. For all the craptastic stuff on the Pip Advanced, Homelink is probably the only feature I actually got daily use from!

 

base doesn't have it. i have gotten used to the clicker on the visor. thought it was funny to see his sitting there.
all the best with your decision!

 

The thing that drove me toward the Touring was the seat memory. My wife is much shorter than I so when I get in the car I couldn't get my knees under the steering wheel. It was always awkward. Of course the memory option demands power seats. We always used Garmin GPS units so now that it's built into the Touring that was good for us too. The rest is just frosting on the cake.

As far as EV goes we are now at 295 miles with ZERO ICE in the first 8 days of ownership. We put the car in Econ mode and just drive it. The ICE never comes on. If you want to add ICE you push down far enough on the accelerator to go past the detent which you can feel. This car does exactly what I hoped it would. I get the full EV experience around town. I even drove it until the battery was almost depleted, only 4 miles of EV remaining, and the ICE didn't come on.

What I'm not sure about is there seems to be 4 modes with only 3 buttons. I'm beginning to gather that no-Econ + no-Sport + no HV means it is in EV mode. Econ means EV but with some automatic adjustments to the climate system and accelerator to make it more efficient. HV means norma, Prius like, hybrid mode, and Sport means EV+ICE. I'm not sure. But we leave it in Econ 100% of the time so far.

By no means if you sneeze will it pop into HV. As far as I can tell it will go up to 100 mph in EV mode. The EV mode has 181 horsepower. We go 70 mph every day with no ICE yet.

When the dealer filled the 7 gallon tank the ICE range read 297 miles. It still reads 297 miles. Zero gas used so far. Love it.

 

I looked through the whole user manual and couldn't find the EV top speed. I thought it was 100 mph but I don't remember where I heard that.

 

Found it. It was this sentence from the Car and Driver review before the car was available, "That said, emissions-free highway cruising is possible; the plug-in hybrid can still reach 100 mph if you go easy and don’t push through the accelerator detent. "

Honda Clarity Electric, Plug-In Hybrid: Green Niche Appeal | Car and Driver Blog

Who knows if that is true or not.

 

I believe if you hold in the HV button for a second or two it will go into a mode that actively recharges the battery up to 53%. That should be the fourth mode.

 

I am (not so) patiently waiting for my local dealer to get their initial shipment of two Clarity's. They are both Touring editions and I have put a down payment on the black one, which is the color I wanted. It should hopefully arrive right before Christmas.

I didn't even know the Clarity existed until a week ago. The wife and I had checked out the Volt at the local Chevy dealer but the ones they had didn't have all the features we wanted. The local Toyota dealer didn't have any Prime's and had no idea when or if they would get one. I was all prepared to fly out to a Toyota dealer in Maryland to buy a Prime. I had called them to set it up and even looked at plane ticket prices. Then for some reason I went to Honda.com to see what their options were and saw the Clarity banner at the top of the page.

With the apathy shown towards green cars in this part of the country I was sure the local Honda place wouldn't even know the car existed, either. In fact, right after seeing that banner I went on YouTube and saw a dealer in Chicago had a video of a black one in their showroom so I immediately called them to see if it was still there. It was, but they put the sales manager on and he immediately tried to jack up the sticker price to around 40k. It was at that point I decided to see if the local dealer had any and the rest is (soon to be/fingers crossed) history.

If you want to know why electric and plug-in hybrids haven't taken off just try talking to a dealer in the Midwest. It is stunning how little they know about these cars and how little they even care to learn.

 

So, not just Toyota hybrid salespeople then!

 

Then I would say there are five modes. The other being no Econ/Sport/HV/Charge which is an EV mode without the added efficiency of the Econ.

 

Maybe Charge is the mode I described? The thing is, I doubt I would use any mode other than the default anyway. But I can't complain about choice, and there certainly are a lot of choices here.

 

It's true. I watched a youtube video (couldn't find it again) that suggested car salespersons tend to push gas cars over electric. I certainly knew a lot more about the Clarity than the salesman did. He even asked me to keep in touch so he could ask me questions if needed. Only after I contacted Honda about the Clarity did the salesman take the online training course available to the Honda dealers. The thinks my salesman did contribute about details of the car were his own experience in his 2017 Accord which had similar controls and features.

 

Today my wife is taking a 70 mile round trip. She will exhaust the battery and the ICE will kick on for the first time since we bought the car. We've now driven over 385 miles over 9 days on electric only.\

We sold our 2015 Prius this morning.

Next step. Waiting for the solar installer to put the new system on the roof.

Also waiting for the electrician to install the 240V 40A outlet in the garage for the Clarity.

 

I believe many dealers make their money off service. Hybrids & EVs require less service and are therefore less profitable, from a business perspective. They are more profitable for the environment, though.
That is part of the reason Tesla shuns the dealer concept.