With PHEV being discontinued....Who's looking at changing?

I'll keep mine at least another 5+ years. Honda isn't going to quit supporting it.

 

I’m going to keep mine until the bitter end (that’s my MO with cars, not just for this one— though I also love it). I do realize the bitter end might be a little earlier than otherwise, if parts become super expensive or the dealers forget how to service them, if they have ever knew to begin with.

I didn’t actually know about the 10 year requirement to keep parts available so that’s a plus.


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Great car.
Cheap to operate, car pool lane, gas or electric, acc, long warranty in CA.
Great car with inflation going crazy.
I think the 50% of msrp value at 4 years will hold.
Might want to extend warranty before 36 mos.

 

Clarity being discontinued might accelerate my next vehicle purchase plans. Looking at VW ID.4 (waiting on the AWD version), Ford Mach-e, maybe the Korean twins if they are actually available outside of CA.

 

Personally I still love the car. I have 5.5 years left on my HondaCare warranty and 7.5 years left on the battery coverage - plus I live in a Z state where I have up to 15 years on some parts. Not going anywhere with my clarity for a long time!

 

I think I agree with this. I bought the Clarity right before Honda effectively pulled the "plug"- for the brief time it was actually "competing" effectively with the Toyota Prius plug-in (late 2018). I suppose I should have realized steep discounts did not auger well for the model. And then there was the almost total lack of advertising as well as it later being pulled from showrooms except in California.

Honda refused to effectively market the car. Guesswork on this forum suggests it was not profitable (for Honda). Yet it emerged as one of Honda's most reliable models. They may actually have achieved Toyota like quality in a Honda hyprid. It's tech is present in the Insight and the hybrid Accord.

Since the Clarity, while excellent, was only popular for the time Honda promoted it- parts unique to it are already expensive. But Honda is required to support it and honor all warranties.

So like many here, I am not at all surprised- but disappointed- but probably far less so than the Honda executives who managed to turn a well engineered and innovative car into a market failure.

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I'll only get rid of my Clarity if it gets totaled, and then I'll be in the market for a good used Clarity as a replacement. I just don't have another car I'd choose to replace it. It's great for normal city driving, hardly ever burning a drop of gas, and I'm fortunate to have a good deal of free charging. I took it on a 650+ mile day trip (with no charging options) on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Averaged above 40 mpg driving upper 70s mph during essentially all of the trip with A/C load. That's hard to beat for flexibility!

 

Same thing here, I will keep mine until the end of the extended warranty (provided maintenance and parts are actually guaranteed), then look probably at the new Mazda PHEV SUV or something similar more appealing that may arise in the process, but surely not a Honda. I am mad as h... with them for the way they treated the Clarity (never advertised it, who needs to see more commercials about the Civic?), and the resale value surely will take a huge hit.

 

There was only one TV ad for the gen-1 Insight in its 7-year life-span. Honda's not into advertising cars for which they lose money on every sale. The ads would cost money and the resulting increased sales would cost them more money. I, personally, thank Honda for keeping the Clarity around longer than I expected.

The Insight died twice and came back each time in a new guise. Perhaps there will be a different Clarity in a few years. Nah, they'd never call an electric SUV or pick-up truck "Clarity."

 

Similar here, sad but not surprised. I really hoped they'd market it, as it was head and shoulders above the latest Insight IMO. For now, I'd say my plan is to continue to hold onto it as I doubt the used market in the NE was great to begin with. Only potential regret is buying instead of leasing which would have provided a "backstop"

 

Did you check the NE used-car market? I haven't but it seems the used-car market everywhere has gone bonkers.

I see nothing on the horizon that can match the Clarity's features and plug-in hybrid benefits. Your Clarity will someday be recognized as the apex of plug-in hybrid cars. Who knows, perhaps the value of the limited supply of Clarity PHEVs manufactured might go up.

The failure of the Clarity PHEV to catch on will be a red flag for any company considering a future plug-in hybrid car. It isn't because there was no advertising that the Clarity PHEV failed. The Clarity failed because cheap gas made people (most of whom apparently believe bigger to be better) consider SUVs and pick-up trucks more desirable than old-fashioned "cars." I often wonder why Honda never brought their prototype Pilot Plug-In Hybrid to market or why the company isn't selling their CR-V Plug-In Hybrid in the US.

I smile every time I drive by the local Tesla Supercharger site, knowing I can extend my Clarity's range much more quickly with a fill-up than a Tesla can add range through charging. My PHEV smugness almost got me into trouble 2 years ago.

A Tesla owner requested that I be asked to leave the local 2019 Drive Electric Week event because I posted a chart comparing how much time a Clarity PHEV vs a Tesla Model 3 would require to complete trips of different lengths. His point--which I consider valid--was that the Clarity's advantage was that it could run on fossil fuel (not Driving Electric) after exhausting its battery charge. I'll admit I made the chart just to tweak the dozens of Tesla owners who ignored my solitary Clarity at the 2018 Drive Electric Week event, but I was not ejected or asked to take down my chart.

 

Gas prices have obviously gone up recently, and who knows whether the trend will continue.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about transitioning to some kind of mileage-based taxation on EV's because they are currently avoiding road taxes that are embedded in the gasoline tax structure. This would obviously serve to tip the scales and mitigate some of the attractiveness of the EV (from a cost perspective). Would a PHEV effectively get double-taxed? We would be paying a road tax on the gas we use (most don't use much luckily), and then again on some measure of miles (which include both gas and electric).

On the one hand, you try to boost a transition to EV's with tax incentives, then on the other hand, you impede the transition by adding road taxes. It all seems a little silly. Ultimately, EV's will need to thrive on their own merits. I think we are partway down that path, but there is a long ways to go.

 

I don't think the Clarity didn't catch on due to lack of marketing. I think the group of us on this forum are much more analytical than 85% of car buyers. When you analyze it, the car makes a ton of sense. Most car buyers want more simplicity, and the high sticker price of PHEVs have meant that no PHEV is a current hit. I also think a big deal is that PHEV make dealerships less money on the sale and follow-up service, so they have no real incentive to sell them over an Acord.

 

I was thinking of changing, but didn't see anything else that meets my needs like the Clarity does. That might change in a few years but for now I'm sticking with my Clarity. I got the Honda extended warranty and live in CA so I'm covered for still a good number of years.

 

After reading your post I checked used car prices in Massachusetts. I’m seeing the same car I drive but with more miles with offering prices MORE then I paid for my car when I bought it new in 2018 (net of taxes and rebates). I wish my 401k did as well as my car appreciation!

 

I don't believe EVs are quite there yet unless strictly staying within their range for most people - by that I mean fast charging (with a strong helping of cost/value). The 400v systems are ok, but the time to 80% just isn't something I feel most families would find acceptable for traveling. On the other hand, the 800v systems seem perfect - I think Kia/Hyundai are great for being the first company out of the gate on that. That being said, unless it's for polishing the technology, I don't think they have quite the right idea. I think what will eventually work is doing what Ford is doing - making the entry level vehicles hybrids shorter-term, and then using mass production vehicles lines to drive costs down on the EVs. Ie the Maverick & F-150 approach. Now, just combine it with 800v...and that's the future I think. Ie, make a Civic & Accord EV with 800v tech. It's still nowhere near F-150 production levels, but it's gotta be a ton cheaper than what they did with the Clarity's 3 variants.

Give it 3-4 years - we'll be closer I think, but not sure if we'll be quite there. May also have some better driver-assist systems. SuperCruise, BlueCruise, Honda's system that's only in Japan, etc. The Clarity is perfect until then, and except for the driver assist stuff it's lacking - it makes sense to keep it IMO if you have one even past when EVs are "there" for everyone.

 

I know this isn’t likely, but it makes me wonder if Honda really ever had aspirations for the Clarity to be successful? The press release says they were testing their “two-motor technology”, and maybe they now thought they had learned enough to apply it to other vehicles. No marketing, limited press and a different styling bent don’t help your odds.

 

The current Accord and Insight Hybrid have drive trains that are almost the same as that of the Clarity PHEV (the Insight has almost the same IC engine, too). Both are assembled in the US for the US market. I suspect that Honda will increase the battery capacity of the Hybrid Accord in the next few years and perhaps even add PHEV capability. The pure electric range will probably not be that of the Clarity PHEV (the Accord and Insight Hybrids only have about a mile of pure EV range currently).

It is also interesting to note the current Acura NSX is a hybrid with limited pure EV range. The NSX always starts out in electric mode (engine not connected to the drive train) and in the quiet mode, the engine does not run for the first mile or so (or up to about 50mph). However, I suspect that JAlex's Taycan is a nicer car than the NSX.

LeoP

 

When a large percentage of people still don’t even know the Clarity exists, you can hardly expect them to beat dealership’s doors down to get one. We only learned of it in 2018 when considering a Chevy Volt, which we has test driven and liked. It was when searching for YouTube videos on the Volt that we stumbled upon the Clarity, which at the time we had never heard of.

Not implying it would have been a success with marketing, but without it it was clearly doomed.