Clarity has excellent braking, far better than a Tesla

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PHEV Newbie

Well-Known Member
A lot of superficial reviews but not a lot of road tests on the Clarity yet. Two with numbers include Car and Driver and Alex on Autos. C/D reported a 0-60 time of 7.6 seconds and A/A reported 7.5 seconds. That compares favorably to the Chevy Volt at 7.5 seconds and 8.1 seconds, respectively. What really surprised me was the stopping distance, which to me is a more important number than acceleration. Clarity 60-0 distance is 118 feet. That is amazing for a 2 ton car using low resistance green tires. For comparison, the Kia Optima PHEV is 124, Volt at 125, the Kia Niro is 126, Ford Fusion Energi is 130, and Prius Prime at a long 139 feet (all measured by A/A for comparison)! Heck, the Tesla Model 3 is a pathetic 133 feet using performance A/S tires. A/A's newest review on the BMW X3 (ICE car) showed 116 feet on performance tires. Imagine what the Clarity can do on performance tires. Honda did an amazing job on Clarity's handling and braking.
 
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Tires make a large difference. The BMW i3 REx with the A/S tires stops from 70 in 184 feet, but with the performance summer tires in 160 feet.

It looks like C&D has the Model 3 doing 70-0 in 176 feet and the Clarity Fuel Cell doing 70-0 in 195 feet. Is there something different about the fuel cell version for tires or braking?

Either way, the 118 feet from 60 mph is great, nice to see it do well. The Clarity handles rough roads better than my Volt 1, but could use some grippier wider tires for performance handling. The Volt has that questionable rear suspension making it a little annoying on the broken concrete roads or asphalt with frost heaving that is common in the midwest.
 
Viking79 said:
Tires make a large difference. The BMW i3 REx with the A/S tires stops from 70 in 184 feet, but with the performance summer tires in 160 feet.

It looks like C&D has the Model 3 doing 70-0 in 176 feet and the Clarity Fuel Cell doing 70-0 in 195 feet. Is there something different about the fuel cell version for tires or braking?

Either way, the 118 feet from 60 mph is great, nice to see it do well. The Clarity handles rough roads better than my Volt 1, but could use some grippier wider tires for performance handling. The Volt has that questionable rear suspension making it a little annoying on the broken concrete roads or asphalt with frost heaving that is common in the midwest.
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You are absolutely correct, tires make a big difference. The C/D Tesla cost $56000 so it was loaded and probably came with upgraded tires. The Clarity FC weighs 100 pounds more than the PHEV and can hold 37 gallons of liquid hydrogen so it might be significantly heavier when tested. Also, we can't rule out that A/A made a mistake in his testing. Consumer Reports is doing a full test review on the Clarity PHEV so it'll be interesting what numbers they come up with. Nevertheless, folks may want to consider swapping their EnergySaver tires for performance A/S if they want to improve handling and braking (at the expense of range and mpg).
 
PHEV Newbie said:
The Clarity FC weighs 100 pounds more than the PHEV and can hold 37 gallons of liquid hydrogen so it might be significantly heavier when tested.
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The total mass of hydrogen that is in the car when the tank is filled is only 5kg, so that's not going to add any meaningful weight for the FC.
 
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