Question: Miles driven on 1 tank of gas?

Totally with you on the "gas anxiety".

I'm at 4500 miles. I went to the gas station at 4000 miles for the first time since I bought the car in January. I added just 2 gallons. I could have gone longer without getting gas as I haven't used any since, but I was down to 2 bars and didn't want the tiny bit of gas remaining to go stale. I'll only fill the tank if I know I'll be going on a long trip. As it is, the EV range has been able to accommodate just about all of our drives, and a quick recharge in the afternoon with an L2 EVSE and we're ready for evening outings.

 

I haven't had mine very long, and haven't used any gas yet. My previous PHEV was a Ford CMAX Energi, and my longest time between fillups with that car was 1,592. I'll be happy if I never have to put gas in this one.

 

Yep, we traded range anxiety for ICE anxiety with the Clarity. I’m at 2,200 miles and 4 months with just 2 gal used on one out of town trip. My gas is sitting so long in the tank that I added Stabil to it. If I don’t use a tankful by the end is the year, I’ll manually do what the Volt does automatically and use a tankful up in HV mode (while not trying to cry about it).

 

I don't have that detail. We've driven 8416 miles total using 30 gallons of gas. That works out to 280 miles per gallon! Pretty much all of the gas was used on trips out of town.

I hate to use gas. It's just the principle.

 

Curious why you only bought 2 gallons? I've seen this comment from other people. Why not just fill it up?

 

Why haul 42 pounds (7 gallons) of heavy gas around all the time? It reduces your EV range.

 

58 lbs is less of a drag on fuel economy than 1psi low in tire pressure. I believe the TPMS will allow several psi drop before warning, so it is up to you to pay attention to tire pressure as religiously as how much unneeded gas is in the tank.

 

Weight is part of it, the other is not wanting gas to go stale if you simply don't drive much.

The car had a full tank when I bought it, which may have already been sitting there for a couple months at the dealer, so I've actually been trying to burn it off so I can refill with a couple of gallons of fresh gas and put some Sta-Bil in this time.

I drove a 2013 Volt for two years only putting in 2-3 gallons at a time (about once every month or two) outside of a couple of road trips a year, and with another 10 miles of EV range and ability to fully charge in 2 hours in the Clarity I suspect I'll use virtually no gas at all unless I'm on a trip.

 

What @M.M. said. In a normal week I don't use any gas, so with a full tank it may be six months to a year before I run low. With just a couple gallons, I can add fresh gas every 2-3 months. I'll fill up if I'm taking a long trip.

 

One thing we won't know yet is fuel maintenance, the Volt made you burn off gas to an average age of 1 year. The people that drove it like an EV with really short range put small amounts of fuel in to prevent having to burn through it the next year.

 

Very true Viking79. Anybody out there got their Clarity before Dec of last year? Maybe we can have the earliest purchaser post at the 1 year mark whether or not their’s does this.

 

I don't think they were on sale in the US until December of last year. I think I remember seeing that 5 were sold in very late November by dealers who got them ahead of the December kick-off.

 

For your reset after every charge, do you actually get useful fuel efficiency numbers? Mine has been pegged at 199.9mpg since I got the car :-(

I wish they would show miles per kWh, or MPGe or something useful.

 

I enabled the reset upon charging, but not the reset upon fueling. Does reset upon fueling require that you remember to look at the number before you pump the fuel? I always look after.

 

@Emanuel Green That 199.9mpg would be the gasoline mileage, so the reset after a charge won't affect that at all. The extreme value is due to the gasoline mileage apparently being calculated combined with all-EV range, so if you do a lot of EV only driving, that mileage reading is going to be inaccurate. There was a Honda tech bulletin that went out recently indicating that a fix for this is in the works.

I do agree about the lack of info displayed for EV efficiency.

 

I always read to keep your tank full because the more air that the ethanol has to interact with the quicker it breaks down (especially in your small 2 cycle engines and lawnmowers and stuff). I was a little concerned at first when reading the owners manual before buying the car and it saying that it can handle up to 10% ethanol. In the warm weather months the gas is switched over to 15% ethanol around here. Well almost as a sign that I should buy the car, they put up a brand new gas station a few months ago that has the option of ethanol free gas. So I ran all off the original gas out and filled up with that. It’s the 89 octane unleaded plus and it does cost a few more cents than the super unleaded/premium gas but I don’t plan on using much of it until the holidays at the end of the year anyway.


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I looked for ethanol free gasoline but sadly there's no station within 100 miles of where I live.

 

Good info! I found a nearby station that sells ethanol-free gas and I'll definitely spend a couple of extra bucks there when we finally use up our first tankful.

Question: The Clarity PHEV's gas door delays opening while the pressure in the gas tank is being equalized with the atmosphere. I've assumed the gas tank is pressurized to increase the longevity of the seldom-used fuel. Does the Clarity pressurize its gas tank more than other cars that don't have delay mechanisms? I don't really expect an answer, but I don't want to be the only person wondering about this all-important question.