Honda Clarity, the Volt Challenger

We are evacuated. Our house is still standing but the fire came within 50 yards. We are safe

 

The colleague doing this review stated that he would prefer the accord hybrid because the clarity shows 42 combined mpg in hybrid mode compared to 47mpg on accord hybrid and no need to plug in. But even with regular road trips of more than 400 miles I am still averaging over 70 mpge with about 3500 miles on the car.cAbout 2/3's are highway miles.so that's about 44% better fuel economy than accord hybrid. So it's easy to jump to conclusions.

 

The difference in gasoline used between 42 mpg and 47 mpg is not that great, not like the difference between 15 and 20 mpg. The better way to look at the measurement is in units of fuel / distance driven. That is why most of the rest of the world measures fuel economy as liters/100 km. See this chart for how it breaks down as mpg.

 

I'm just making a point that if one only looks at clarity's mpg and not mpge it's easy to choose the accord hybrid over the clarity. Overall economy on clarity is way better than accord hybrid.

 

Oh I agree absolutely. I was just pointing out the silliness of making a big deal about 5 MPG extra when you're already in the 40s. The fact that they're not even counting EV makes it even sillier.

 

Also the size of the car makes a difference right? Saying a Civic gets better mileage than the Accord is true... just not a good comparison.
Compact Hatchback vs Midsized Sedan.

 

I wondered how you were doing. Scary stuff. And really sorry to hear about all the fatalities with these fires. We're not excited for the end of September - that's when things get critical around here. There are better resources now, and because of the fires a few years ago, there's a strong evacuation plan, but once a fire like these gets going with a little wind, there's practically no stopping it. Glad to read that your family and home are OK.

 

Glad you and the house are safe. You might want to check your engine and cabin filter to see is there’s any soot and debris that needs to be tapped out. You may have to go on the shortened dusty schedule for them.

As to the reviews:
They either fail to take into account the PHEV nature of the Clarity or they just don’t understand Middle School math.
The Clarity easily beats the Accord’s EPA combined 48 mpg by just driving merely 8% in EV.
It will also beat the Insights EPA combined 52 mpg by just driving at least 16% in EV.

And we know we all drive much more EV that that! So hands down, the Clarity is more efficient, green, cost effective, and fuel/energy saving than either the hybrid Insight or the hybrid Accord.
To paraphrase Prince Joseph of the Nez Perce, “I will pump no more gas forever.” (At least in town and after I switch out the gas mower)

 

From my experience the main key to the economy of any hybrid is the time the ice is off. So the I will accept the hassle of plugging in to reap the added benefits of more ev range. Very simple. That said the accord hybrid is also a great vehicle.

 

Glad to hear you and your home escaped!

It's good to be reminded of what's really important in life. Much as I enjoy discussing and reading about EVs on InsideEVs, that doesn't hold a candle to the importance of people's lives and homes.

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not to mention he didn't point out that with rebates fully loaded Clarity vs fully loaded Accord hybrid, the Clarity is about $7000 cheaper!!!

 

The practice , what I follow is: make Odometer Counter A to zero when I fill up tank full and then wait till my next tank fill before I reset again. Also Meter B I do not reset.
Currently I have meter B reading at 4800km & I just reset meter A at 1600km.My overall Odometer reading is 8200km. Now if you go under Gas consumption tab with changing Arrow on steering wheel , it will show you different reading for A and B gas consumption per 100km, so you can look in to long term gas consumption performance of your car based on YOUR way of use and blend of battery v/s HV.
Mine averages about 1.8 Lit per 100km for 4800km of my reading B.

 

Also I am not sure some one noticed that or not: when you shutdown car, you will see various green flowers and below that you will see a horizontal line of different length.
Does any one noticed that ? Do you know what does that mean ?
That Line shows how good you are in green driving. More longer the line , more u r using on Battery. watch it next time.

 

Do you do this manually? There is a setting in the menu that will reset the trip meter every time you fill up automatically.

 

Yes. P312 of manual
Go to Settings, Vehicle, Meter Setup.
I set A to reset after every charge and B to reset after every fill up. Just record it before you charge or fill up.

 

Actually , I prefer Manually , so I can have trip A and Trip B track different matrix.

 

Just set trip a to reset after each fillup and it will be exactly how you manually do it right now. Trip b will be unaffected. That is how I currently have it set up as well.

 

I don't think I'd use the recharge simply to build up battery to consume on the highway. But if I ever got into the situation I think I'd use it to build up some battery so that I could be in EV for the distance from the highway to wherever I was going--and if I couldn't recharge at the destination, enough to get back out onto the highway again. As much as anything else, it's just plain a better ride in EV in town driving, and it may even be energy efficient such that the EV gain in town is more than the loss of conversion. I still don't know the answer to that, but it's somewhat immaterial since we're talking 10 miles or whatever at the tail end.

 

You're the only person I'm aware of that bought it in 2017. Did the IRS give you any monkey business about the credit, or was it really as simple as fill out the form with your taxes and get the refund in the mail?

I have the same color, btw, love it!