Hi, I have a question about how many EV miles you can get driving in Econ mode. When your EV range is exhausted, but you keep the Clarity below a certain speed (say 30 mph), can you still drive without gas, because you're using backup battery capacity that's reserved for HV mode? For example, in the Prius Prime, once you exhaust the EV range (in my experience, this usually happens after around 34 miles if you're driving at a steady state (no stop signs/red lights/traffic jams), you're going 45-55 mph, and it's 60-70 degrees F outside), it's not so much that the car then suddenly and completely "switches" to hybrid mode; rather, the gas engine will gradually come on more and more frequently (the first signs are when you try to go up hills at 45-55 mph), but you'll still be able to pick up quite a few EV miles, especially if you get off the highway and keep the car under 30 mph - even with an entirely depleted battery, the Prime still stays in EV mode 100% of the time under these speeds. Thus, on 3 separate 47-mile, mostly highway trips, I was able to pick up 39 EV miles in the Prime by simply 1.) driving the speed limit on 45-55 mph state/county highways, and 2.) keeping the speed under 30 mph in city driving. This is a more than 50% improvement over the EPA range. And keep in mind that this was my first time ever driving a Prius Prime, and my only other experience even driving a regular Prius was driving a Gen 2 on maybe two or three short trips. (The Prime really is an impressive car). But I digress. The question that I intended to ask: does the Clarity PHEV have similar EV capacity, even after the EV range is exhausted? Could you, for example, drive the 60+ miles of warm-weather EV range that others are reporting elsewhere on this forum, but then, once your EV range is at 0, pick up even more EV-only miles by keeping the car below a certain speed, because you'd be using battery reserves that are normally meant for HV mode? Thanks.
I can't speak to the Prius Prime exactly, but I had a 2010 Prius before we got the Clarity and I would say it behaves comparatively to that when the ev range is depleted. It switches back to ev when conditions dictate, like going downhill or driving conservatively enough that it has had enough regen in the battery to switch the engine off for a bit. My personal preference driving the Clarity is to manually switch to hv mode when the ev range gets to around 5-6 miles, then switch back to ev mode when I get that close to my destination rather than letting it deplete all the way and having it switch back and forth. This has the added benefit of preventing the chance of the high engine revving (angry bees) that sometimes occurs when the ev range is at zero.
I am doing the same like you. But when the Clarity is in HV mode and there are 3 to 5km EV range left, it still switches between ICE and EV until the EV range is completely depleted. I can't find a way to force it to use ICE 100%.
Every time I have done this it has worked as intended. When you switch to hv mode it will cycle between hv and ev, but as a means to keep the battery roughly at the same charge. Maybe try switching around 7-8 km to give it a bit more buffer.
