Featured Honda Clarity Plug-in

After the debacle with our local dealer I was able to find the same exact vehicle with a quick web search 5 hours away in Tennessee, which incidentally was the closest Clarity of any type to my location. I called the dealer yesterday afternoon and this morning my wife and I drove all the way down there, bought the car, and caravanned back to Cincinnati. I am guessing we have the only Clarity in the greater Cincinnati area right now, and maybe the whole state!

Last night I messaged the salesman to charge it up for us before we arrived, which of course he forgot to do, so the whole drive back was with no battery power. It didn't quite make the trip on one tank of gas. We had to fill it up again about a half hour from home. I think it averaged about 36mpg but I will have to double check. My wife was the one driving it.

 

I can't tell at what percentage the current drops. However This evening it started dropping from 7KW quite rapidly. It started at 6:18pm and was fully charged at 6:32pm. So the reduced amperage started 34 minutes prior to the battery being fully charged.

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I love the way the black looks on this car. I know you're gonna love it.

 

How long are you finding a recharge takes from a fully discharged or nearly fully discharged battery? You’re using the 110 volt option as I recall. On my 240v, 20amp circuit, it takes about 4 1/2 hours.

Next week I’ll look into the pricing of upgrading to 40amps and if the current wiring supports it.

 

Bob, it’s a good suggestion, but as you’ve seen, there’s actually more action here. Prior to joining here, I googled Clarity forums, and this is the one that popped up.

I saw your post over at the Honda forum you suggested, but as you saw there, it’s Death Valley there for Clarity owners. I’m sure things will change there over time, but for now....

Such is life living on the cutting edge.

 

I do get Bob's point that this thread should at least be moved to 'Other Cars'. Maybe someone with moderating power could move this over there? I feel like starting a new Clarity thread would be counter-productive at this point.

 

The slowing of rate of charge happens to our Tesla as well. It's most apparent when we're at a supercharger. You charge at a blazing rate until you get to about 85%, then things start slowing down rapidly. Prius PHEV did the same thing - on a much smaller scale, of course.

 

It'll be interesting to see - over time - how many original Prius PHEV owners cross over to the Clarity or another PHEV rather than moving into a Prime. PriusChat is always going to be "home" for many PiP owners, so it'd be nice to stick around and still be able to catch up on the discussions about Clarity AND Prime.

Right now, likely due to the novelty of the Clarity PHEV, THIS particular thread appears to be the BEST thread on the vast internets for these initial discussions. The threads on the Honda site recommended are about the Fuel Cell version.

I guess I better get rid of my PiP avatar screen sometime soon, too. LOL

 

Absolutely. What makes my comparison more difficult is my Tesla is charging on a 240v 60A circuit (actually only charging at a 40A rate), but my Clarity is only charing on a 240v 20A circuit.

BTW, it would be nice if there was a dash indicator that showed the charging rate & remaining time on the Clarity. Our Tesla has this and my Hyundai Sonata PHEV had it too. You can certainly use the mobile app, but it would be nice to see it on the dash too.

 

Ken, you need to go out to your Tesla, tap the "T", swipe down on the info screen or just say "Ho Ho Ho", find the Christmas Egg and have a Merry Christmas!

 

The 110V was taking about the 12 hours advertised. We've just had the Level 2 charge station for two days without needing a full 0-100% charge yet. Ours is on a 40A circuit. It seems to charge from about 1/2 to full in an hour or a bit more so it seems to be on target for the advertised 2 1/2 hour full charge time.

The level 2 charge and 47 mile EV range is perfect for us. We can take our son to school, then hit the gym and perhaps a store. Home with 30 miles used we won't really notice the short charge time so the next time we jump in the car it's back to 100%. Good bye gas stations.

 

We took a brief look at the Prime having owned two Prius cars. The Prius reliability was outstanding, mileage was excellent. We liked both. But Toyota took the styling in a different direction than we wanted to go. Also for our particular situation the 25'ish EV miles of the Prime were marginal. The 47 EV miles of the Clarity is a perfect fit for us. The Prime gets vastly superior mpg on the long trips than the Clarity, but we won't hit ICE use in the Clarity more often than perhaps once every two months. Really the Clarity and Prime are very different cars. I would call the Prime more of a sporty car that would appeal to those who like the styling. The Clarity is more of a luxury car, smooth and quiet with more room. The Prime has more cargo space and a superior 40/60 rear seat design.

I'm posting here but I'm finding a Clarity community here: Honda | Inside EVS Forum

 

Bob, I did that early this morning, pretty funny. I was happy that the update went without a hitch, since I had 2 failed updates with .48, before Tesla Corporate sent a successful 3rd attempt.

Merry Christmas to you too!

 

Question to the new owners- any idea how long will the car go without burning gas for any reason? I know Volt will eventually force engine run for maintenance or due to low temps. Will Clarity do something similar where you could conceivably only fill up once a year. I scanned through the user manual but did not see anything about it

 

We don't have temperatures below about 20 degrees F on the very coldest overnights so I can't speak for that part of the question. Our winter daytime highs are in the 50s and 60s. Usual overnight winter temps are high 30s to low 40s.

We now have about 1,200 miles on our car. We purchased it on Dec 5. As far as we can tell the only two times we used any gas was on two trips out of town. All other drives around town have been EV only. The transition from EV to ICE is imperceptible so it is possible the engine has come on but we didn't know it. Neither my wife nor I push the car at all. We were taught how to drive for economy by our previous two Prius cars. We only drive in EV/Econ mode.

We filled the gas tank after our last out of town trip on Dec 18. We've driven 295 miles since then and the gas gauge shows full. The only way I'd know if the engine came on would be to top off the gas tank.

 

one would think the dash readouts should show when the ice turns on, if only because that's typically how hybrid gauges are .... the plugin manufacturers like to show you lots & lots of data stuff.
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Yes the gauges do show if the ICE comes on. But that display is not permanent so it has to be selected, then observed. I do watch that display a lot but certainly not all of the time. I could miss situations where the ICE comes on.

 

It’s actually very easy to tell if the ICE has come on for any meaningful period. By selecting the center gauge readout that gives you the separate electric and ICE ranges remaining, you can tell if the ICE has been on. Obviously if it comes on for a second it won’t reduce the ICE miles remaining. However if you know you started with 250 ICE miles, and at the trip’s completion you’re at 248 ICE miles, you know the ICE did in fact engage for approximately 2 miles worth of driving (temperature dependent).

We’ve driven the car in the low teens and can’t see that the ICE ever came on.