Question: Is the High voltage battery under the vehicle, or under the seat as many videos have said.

Teslawannabe

Link below shows the internals from a different perspective.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/260223-2018-honda-clarity-review-midsize-plug-hybrid-car

Hope this helps.

 

I hate to say this, but that sounds suspiciously like dealer bull#*&@ or totally uninformed speculation. There was a post of a Clarity getting its battery removed that showed the special battery lift that is required to remove the battery from the bottom. It said they put yellow and black safety tape around that bay and don’t let any non trained tech close when working on the battery. It said nothing about removing any interior parts. To me that is strong evidence that battery service is from below and not from above. And I can’t see Honda engineers and lawyers placing the battery in the cabin without a lot of protective panels instead of going below and using already existing body panels/structures to separate it from the occupants while saving weight. After all, the Clarity is a fresh design and not a compromise shoehorned into an existing model.

Not 100% sure on this, but would be willing to make a moderate wager that the HV battery is serviced from below.

That battery pack has to be impervious to splashing water and wind driven water up to its max speed or Honda would go bankrupt with repairs and lawsuits. However, as with any car, I would not drive it through standing water high enough to be unsafe or high enough to immerse the bottom of the car and the low mounted battery pack. I’ve been in two torrential rains that caused flash flood warnings and had no trouble other than a lot of water dripping off in the garage. No problem, since I run a humidifier in the garage to protect my tools from rust.

Bottom line: I’m driving confidently into a very economical, efficient, and comfortable future. However, I did buy the 8 yr warranty since I have little hope that the dealers will ever be up to speed on repairs.

Edit: I found some sources saying the battery is under the floor and as low as it can be and is mostly between the wheel base. You will however notice twin “bumps” directly in front of the front seats that are for the battery pack. These are the raised areas that the WeatherTech mats don’t cover. This low placement gives us an extremely low center of gravity and very little body roll.

 

Honda requires their dealers to purchase an expensive lift to lower and raise the heavy HV battery when the Clarity is on a lift. I don't know if parts of the interior need to be removed to access the bolts that anchor the battery to the underside of the chassis, but it would be inconvenient to access any such bolts if the car was on a lift.

You can see from this photo that the Clarity PHEV's battery isn't a body-raising slab like most electric cars use. Honda created battery lumps under the front seats, a lumpy spine between the front and rear seats, and a big lump under the rear seat. There don't appear to be any battery cells where the outside rear-seat passengers place their feet.



To paraphrase baseball Hall-of-Famer Wee Willie Keeler from the 1890s, "hide 'em where they ain't."

 

The Clarity emergency response guide shows a pretty good view:

https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/web/AJA07616.pdf

I put a printed copy in my glove compartment just in case.

geo

 

K8QM

Good post. Thanks

 

It would be tough to confuse the 2019 Insight's battery with a Clarity PHEV battery. This photo from Indiana shows the Insight's battery being moved into position under where the rear seat will go.



And here's the battery I just took out of my 2006 Insight. Don't try this at home with a Clarity PHEV battery.