Are they 18650's? What brand and how many? Just curious. Well and maybe we can add some more and increase the electric range...
I don't think anyone uses 18650's except for Tesla. Here's a teardown of the battery https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/clarity-battery-teardown.6062/ Honda does not release any info on the batteries, however it's speculated to be supplied from GSYUSA and manufacturered by BlueEnergy. https://www.gs-yuasa.com/en/products/lithium_ion_batteries.php https://www.blue-energy.co.jp/en/products/index.html It's be hard to increase the range significantly without cutting into the passenger/cargo space. The Full EV clarity has a 25.5 kwh battery and has a much smaller trunk.
I recall seeing them as made by Panasonic. 3.7v 27ah. You can’t just add a few. You’ll have to add 84 of them, wired in series and then connect that battery in parallel with the 2 existing batteries.
That make sense, but they wouldn't necessarily have to be the same cells; they could be any lithium ion cells. Perhaps at some point, the charger in the car would get angry about the increased charging current, set an error code and refuse to charge. How different is the EV Clarity from the PHEV? Does it use the same voltage? Is it possible to swap out parts and use the EV battery setup in the PHEV?
As long as you are willing to give up your gas tank it would theoretically be possible . At that point you might as well lose the ICE, exhaust system, eCVT, etc. You would spend probably tens of thousands of dollars to build an 89 mile EV (in the unlikely event Honda would even sell you the parts). Even if you found somewhere else to put it, there would likely be numerous other challenges (cooling lines, power cables, etc.) Not sure if the PHEV computers would be able to "see" the additional battery capacity and adjust accordingly.
You can find a Clarity PHEV battery pack for about $3,500 online. That’ll be your best bet if you are looking to increase range. If you wired the pack in parallel cell for cell you could get the existing onboard charger to charge up both packs while keeping the BMS happy. You’d have to extend the coolant lines to wherever you plan on putting the spare pack, I assume in the trunk. Maybe add some vents in there just in case. You could get rid of most of the pack that wouldn’t serve a purpose anymore to save weight. DC-DC converter, contactors, etc. You are going to need to save weight in order to keep modifications to rear suspension. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The EV has 3, 84 cell batteries, the PHEV has 2. Same voltage. It would be quite a project and the cost to convert and charge additional batteries would probably exceed the cost of just burning some petrol when needed.
