Honda Clarity plugin hybrid

No premium. No negotiating. It is the Honda price + delivery + tax. I was in no position to bargain. I wanted the $7,500 tax credit and I wanted the red color. I was afraid others would want the same so I practically begged for the car.

Out the door $40,600 - $7,500 - CA rebate $1,500 = $31,600. When we sell the 2015 Prius the bottom line will be about $17K.

As a token I asked them to throw in a cargo net.

 

- I have to start by saying I've never liked the center mounted gauges. So that transfers to the Prime as well.

- Only 4 seats. I'd say we may carry five people three or four times a year but we'd be forced to take a second car with the Prime.

- I hate the toilet bowl white accents. If Toyota had chosen a softer white it may have been okay. It really looks bad in the Prime with white seats that don't match. Some of the cars on the dealer lot had the center console in black. I don't know if that is the applique or an option.

- I really don't like the dash board design and large LCD display.

- Overall ugly dash

- No rear wiper. We really do use it.

- We don't care for either the black or white seats.

- Piano black shiny surfaces could be dust and fingerprint magnets

- While exterior looks don't matter very much to me (evidence we've purchased two Prius cars) my wife and I don't like the looks of the Prime.

- The prime EV range is inadequate. Our most common trip is to take our son to school 24 miles round trip. If my wife takes a side trip to church, the gym, or grocery store she'd be using gas. My goal is to use pure EV for all around town trips, only using the ICE for long trips outside the city.

- Whether a car is good looking or not is subjective. Both my wife and I find the interior and exterior of the Prime are not to our liking.

There are good things about the Prime. Cargo space is decent. Hybrid mileage is quite good. It does at least have some EV capability, the price is attractive, the range is quite good.

 

No discounts or rebates. In California there is a $1,500 rebate from the state. We will get the $7,500 but it looks like that will no longer be available after 1/1/2018.

Perhaps if it doesn't sell well prices may drop. But it's way too early to know.

 

As far as the Prime selling well I suspect that will continue. It has a lower price so it is a good deal. The things I don't like are just me. Others may feel quite the opposite. Also daily drive circumstances dictate how valuable are the long range, high mpg on long distance trips, and the rather short EV range.

I think the Clarity PHEV is in a slightly different class. It's a bit more like the Volt but much more comfortable. I suspect the Clarity PHEV will put a big squeeze on the Volt sales. There is a general feeling among consumers that Chevy reliability isn't very good in spite of the good record of the Volt. Honda, of course, has a much better reputation which will attract people. When they find out they can get similar EV range, from Honda, in an Accord sized car, I think a large percentage will switch over to the Clarity.

 

Not bad really. I paid MSRP for my 2005 Prius, and I remember some dealers added $5000 to the price of the Accord PHEV just because they could.

I expect GM to officially cut the Volt's price within a year. They are already being discounted, and their value for CAFE means GM can deal more than Honda.

 

I also heard that GM has found ways to cut the cost of manufacturing, particularly the battery.

 

600 page manual available here Owners Manual | 2018 Clarity Plug-In | Honda Owners

 

Looks like the tax credit was killed in a last minute amendment to the senate bill before it passed, so I’ve got to make some decisions. I sat in the Clarity PHEV for a while testerday at the LA Auro Show, generally liked it but felt a little light on driver’s leg room, I could get over that. My friend, whose legs are longer than mine, loves the Clarity EV he leased last weekend. Time to start calling dealers.

 

Good news Ursamajor. You don't have to make a lot of decisions. Its either the standard model or the Touring. Then pick a color and you're done.

 

Heard the Volt drives just like an EV no matter how much mash pedal until charge depleted whereas Clarity PHEV will invoke gas engine (with range left) if load demands. Let us know how Clarity drives. Weighs about 4,000 lbs yikes.

Sad to hear tax credits (likely) going away for plug ins. Taking things in wrong direction.

 

The cost to make batteries has been steadily been dropping year to year. A car manufacturer not getting the benefit of those savings could be because of supplier contracts, and why Tesla wanted their own factory.

 

Some may see this as a negative, others an asset.

It appears the Clarity PHEV has haptic feedback with a "click" felt through the accelerator pedal to let the driver know that if pushed further the engine will engage. Since pushing past the click allows access to additional ICE power, I see that as an asset and would want a feature like that on a PHEV. Econ mode raises the click threshold to providing additional power.

Granted, it would also be nice to have a switch to lock out ICE completely if desired.

 

i wish pip had had that feature.

 

Same here.

On weekly errands there is a right hand turn I have to make that merges into uphill traffic. It's a nuisance to maintain close awareness of surroundings while merging and also trying to watch the HSI so as not to trip the ICE on. Then with climbing another local hill at 50 mph speed limit and 6% grade, watching the HSI again is an issue. Safety and road attention take priority, so in my case the ICE fires up 1-2x monthly more than I would prefer. Haptic feedback would fix this.

 

plus, the hsi has a delay from stop. when i'm on a sharp uphill incline at a light or stop sign, i'm almost through the intersection before the bar appears.

 

The way I heard it described is some cars require you to push a button to allow the ICE to fire up when in EV mode. The Clarity provides the same feature by having the click on the accelerator pedal. So they both do the same thing. It's just a matter of how it was implemented.

We drive our Prius for max fuel economy so rarely ever push the pedal to the floor. The only time I think I'd use that feature is when passing cars on a two lane highway.

 

What I want to learn more about is the ability to recharge the battery up to 50% of it's capacity using the gas engine. Presumably this means I can take a long trip like this:

1) Drive 47 miles on EV
2) Drive 283 miles on the ICE
3) Drive some more miles on EV; whatever 50% of the 17kwh battery provides.

I would have to assume that this puts an extra load on the gas engine which would reduce the ICE mpg.

I wonder why it would be limited to 50% recharge. I want to try it out to see how it impacts the ICE mpg. I wonder how long, say at 70mph, it would take to recharge the battery from zero to 50%.

 

Does that mean the Prime can recharge the HV battery above the hybrid level and recharge the EV portion up to 80%? If the Prime has 25 miles of EV does the recharge mean it can be recharged on the road to provide about 20 more miles of EV?

Never mind. I found that information elsewhere on priuschat.