This has been excellently discussed in exhausting detail {
} in several other threads. Here is just one:
https://www.insideevsforum.com/comm...charge-in-econ-for-no-reason.5036/#post-53627
There are many others as well
https://www.insideevsforum.com/comm...urning-on-to-protect-full-battery.4864/page-3
https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/solved-unexpected-ice-turns-on.3402/
As mentioned above, the manual lists several reasons why the ICE can and will come on besides going past the click in ECON or past the blue power arc and into the white. And the ICE will run until it warms up in order to protect the engine. Mine shuts off after a few minutes (slightly longer in winter).
Also many owners have posted (and we have found a paper to support this) that the ICE will come on after a full charge to somehow protect the battery from being over charged. The known triggers for this behavior seem to be full charge and downhill braking/regenning or hard braking or heavy paddle regenning. If you look at the power meter immediately after a full charge, you will see that the amount of regen is limited until you have driven a bit and reduced the SOC.
So occasional ICE start ups with short run times are perfectly normal, beneficial, and to be expected. I strongly recommend against trying to manuall stop these ICE runs since engines need to warm up to operations temperature to remove moisture and condensation in the oil and in the exhaust system. (Ever seen water dripping out is someone’s exhaust?) There’s less corrosion potential if you warm every thing up and let it dry itself out.
IMHO, we do not have the Volt feature that tracks how long the gas has been in the tank and runs the ICE to keep it from getting more than 1 year old (or is it 2 in the Volt?). I say this because my Clarity has let gas sit in the tank for 9 months without losing a bar and with hardly any ICE starts once I learned how to prevent the ICE on for no regen for battery protection thingy.
Ana as also mentioned above, the Clarity is a PHEV not a BEV. It has a gas engine and to keep that engine lubricated and ready to start at all times, it’s going to occasional exercise it. Remember, engines are like our joints; they don’t do well if they just sit immobile. It will burn a negligible amount of gas over a year if you use the strategies mentioned to prevent the “ICE run for battery protection with full charge/limited regen”.
Those are:
1. Don’t charge to 100% (too hard for me to do)
2. Burn up some SOC by using resistance heat (esp if you have a downhill close to your last full charge)
3. Use brake pedal instead of paddles and avoid hard braking (works for me on relatively flat area)
I am tickled pink that I have a comfortable, quiet, roomy vehicle that only used 13 gal of gas in the first year of ~8,000 miles and only needed a single oil change. With solar on my roof it’s practically like driving for free.
Yes, I have drunk the Clarity Koolaide!!
