I wish the Clarity was more Voltish

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Tim66 said:
I love the Clarity and if I had the choice of a new Volt or a new Clarity I'd get the Clarity. But.... Chevrolet did a much better job of designing and implementing the the PHEV elements of their car than Honda did. The Volt only uses the ICE when the driver wants to use it
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Never driving Volt more than the 1 test drive I did, I was Told (sales guy, who supposedly owns a Volt himself) that ICE doesn't kick in until after you run out of battery. NOT something you choose?

Honda's decision to allow the driver to choose regenerative braking in ECO mode but then shut it off every time the brake is pushed is ridiculous.
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Only until your speed goes below 7 mph; otherwise they'll stay there up to 3 seconds of acceleration or using right paddle of course
The Volt has no "detent"and no "angry bees".
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What happens when ICE turns on and you're out of battery?

The oil change interval for the Volt makes more sense than the Clarity's. The Volt has an oil life monitor.
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Agreed. What's sadder is that other Honda (our 2016 Odyssey has it) has the Oil Life, and I was fully expected this on my 2018 Clarity.
 
The Gadgeteer said:
Is anyone else getting tired of the same topics being rehashed and debated over and over again in this forum?
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This forum is so popular that it would take eons to read through every thread. New members will certainly have the same questions that were discussed previously, but it doesn't bother me to re-state my ultra-valuable opinions. I'm happy to see old topics revived with either new data or new theories relating to them. The amazing thing is how many topics the Clarity PHEV can generate. What other car can be so simple to drive on one hand, yet so complicated to understand for those who want to get into the details?
 
I'm kind of enjoying pushing the Clarity buttons (compared to Volt L-D), and experiencing the different driving regimes, especially as I learn and think more about each of the modes here and their relation to the transition points, and to HV.
 
Well, I can't speak for others'experienced but I've never had an issue with "angry bees" in the 10 months and 9,100 miles I've driven my Clarity. I tend to keep it in Econ mode and I've only once pushed the accelerator to the beyond the detent and I only definitely 5 it then just to try it out. My generally runs in all electric mode except when we take longer trips. I've only taken the car in for service/oil change once (it was free from the dealer) and my Service Minder says my next appointment will be in 6 months.

As for the regen, I would prefer it be similar to what Kia/Hyundai are doing now, where there are different levels but you can also put the paddle back and hold it and it will apply hard regen up to almost a complete stop.

The car isn't perfect, but the Volt was never even a consideration for me. Your mileage may vary, as they say...
 
Mariner91 said:
Never driving Volt more than the 1 test drive I did, I was Told (sales guy, who supposedly owns a Volt himself) that ICE doesn't kick in until after you run out of battery. NOT something you choose?
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Find another salesman :) You have four choices with the Volt all activated by a button on the dash. Normal, Sport, Mountain and Hold. Hold is comparable to HV mode on the Clarity. Unless the battery is depleted the ICE won't come on unless you want it to. This article explains it much better than I can. https://www.torquenews.com/1/when-use-chevy-volts-hold-and-mountain-modes-best-mpg
 
sniwallof said:
I'm kind of enjoying pushing the Clarity buttons (compared to Volt L-D), and experiencing the different driving regimes, especially as I learn and think more about each of the modes here and their relation to the transition points, and to HV.
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And I like all of the customization you can do with the car's systems. Let's face it, people who buy a Clarity are most likely gadget guys at heart.
 
I agree completely with the OP's sentiments. I love the Clarity, but there are some things that the Volt got better. I also don't think the paddle implementation is the best. I wish the Clarity had more clear information about efficiency/etc. I think the biggest thing I don't agree with Honda about is how they have programmed when High revving comes on in EV mode, and how the engine runs to handle the regen energy when the battery is full. There is just a little too much time where the engine runs in situations where it doesn't seem that it needs to.
 
Tim66 said:
I love the Clarity and if I had the choice of a new Volt or a new Clarity I'd get the Clarity. But.... Chevrolet did a much better job of designing and implementing the the PHEV elements of their car than Honda did. The Volt only uses the ICE when the driver wants to use it and regenerative braking is simpler and, I believe, more efficient. Honda's decision to allow the driver to choose regenerative braking in ECO mode but then shut it off every time the brake is pushed is ridiculous. The Volt has no "detent"and no "angry bees". The oil change interval for the Volt makes more sense than the Clarity's. The Volt has an oil life monitor. Basically you drive the Volt as an EV or ICE vehicle when you decide to do so (unless the battery is depleted). The Clarity, on the other hand, will on occasion use the ICE regardless of the driver's wish to do so. But other than the EV aspects of the Volt the Clarity is a better car. I love the extra interior room, the true 5 passenger seating, the handling and the accessories (I have the Touring model). I just wish the Clarity was more like the Volt on the EV side of the equation.

Tim
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Tim,
Don't use ECO mode. If you want ICE, enable HV mode. If you want electric mode only, press HV button again while you are in HV mode. Volt has no match against Clarity in any aspects except some UI designs, just some UI designs. Talking about driving efficiency, Volt has only limited more range on the book than Clarity with much higher battery capacity, and less curb weight, I think they have about the same gas mpg. Volt was even more expensive, I would not paid any higher than 5000 lesser what I paid for my Clarity for a Volt.

Julian
 
Tim66 said:
But why design an PHEV that has a detent in the first place? Do you agree that the requirement that you have to constantly, manually engage regenerative mode with the paddle in ECON mode is a PITA? With the Volt you merely put the shifter in L and you have regenerative braking in any mode (in addition to regen when you apply the brake). I just wish the Clarity would always be in EV mode until I decided to use the ICE. A problem I'm having is that if I go past the detent in EV mode the ICE comes on but will not shut off. This happens no matter what the SOC. Some people here have said it is normal and the ICE will shut off after 10 minutes. Why? That is the kind of poor EV engineering I'm talking about. And would it have killed them to add an oil life function? Again the Clarity is a better overall car than the Volt IMHO. Just exercising my wishful thinking option.

Tim
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Wait. Regen braking works every time you press on the brake pedal. You do not have to use the paddles in regen mode. Friction brakes kick in when needed, but the Clarity will use regen until it needs friction to stop the car. This is exactly the way most hybrids out there (I drove Prii for 15 years before getting my Clarity) do it. I think the main difference on the Clarity is that the transition between regen and friction braking is so seamless on a Clarity, you can't detect it (at least I can't!). In any event, you don't need to use the paddles at all to take advantage of regen braking.
 
In my view there is nothing wrong with using the ICE engine when you need more power, specially in an emergency , without having to fiddle with the buttons.

What is the peak HP of the Clarity vs the Volt?
 
PriusGeek said:
Wait. Regen braking works every time you press on the brake pedal. You do not have to use the paddles in regen mode. Friction brakes kick in when needed, but the Clarity will use regen until it needs friction to stop the car. This is exactly the way most hybrids out there (I drove Prii for 15 years before getting my Clarity) do it. I think the main difference on the Clarity is that the transition between regen and friction braking is so seamless on a Clarity, you can't detect it (at least I can't!). In any event, you don't need to use the paddles at all to take advantage of regen braking.
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I think that this is the most pervasive single misconception about the Clarity - that if you don't use the paddles, you're not taking advantage of regenerative braking, or that somehow the paddles get you more/better regenerative braking.

Sure, if you have to stop quickly and invoke friction brakes then you'll see less regenerative energy that if you used the paddles. But in this example, your front end is mangled because you didn't stop in time because you insisted on using the paddles.

The reset of the amount of braking in ECON mode is a separate issue. Some like it; some don't; it's a personal opinion thing. But it has no effect on how much energy is captured by the regen system, which works so well that we don't even know it's there.
 
PriusGeek said:
Wait. Regen braking works every time you press on the brake pedal. You do not have to use the paddles in regen mode. Friction brakes kick in when needed, but the Clarity will use regen until it needs friction to stop the car. This is exactly the way most hybrids out there (I drove Prii for 15 years before getting my Clarity) do it. I think the main difference on the Clarity is that the transition between regen and friction braking is so seamless on a Clarity, you can't detect it (at least I can't!). In any event, you don't need to use the paddles at all to take advantage of regen braking.
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Regen means losing energy while you convert kinetical energy to electric energy, the best way is always that you don't even need regen to kick in.
 
vin seeram said:
In my view there is nothing wrong with using the ICE engine when you need more power, specially in an emergency , without having to fiddle with the buttons.

What is the peak HP of the Clarity vs the Volt?
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Chevy says the electric motor in the Volt generates 149 HP powered by the battery alone (I don't believe the Volt's ICE can power the motor). Honda says the Clarity PHEV's electric motor can generate 121 HP when powered only by the battery and 181 HP, when powered by both the battery and the ICE. Honda claims a peak horsepower of 212, but won't reveal how it gets to that number. Car & Driver got to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds in a Volt and 7.7 seconds in a Clarity PHEV.
 
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MNSteve said:
I think that this is the most pervasive single misconception about the Clarity - that if you don't use the paddles, you're not taking advantage of regenerative braking, or that somehow the paddles get you more/better regenerative braking.

Sure, if you have to stop quickly and invoke friction brakes then you'll see less regenerative energy that if you used the paddles. But in this example, your front end is mangled because you didn't stop in time because you insisted on using the paddles.

The reset of the amount of braking in ECON mode is a separate issue. Some like it; some don't; it's a personal opinion thing. But it has no effect on how much energy is captured by the regen system, which works so well that we don't even know it's there.
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The reset is a correct design, you should always avoid using either regen or the brake if any possible. Regen = efficiency is a wrong wrong concept. That being said, they are trying to inject the right concept by resetting the level of regen.
 
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