No One Has Ever Heard of This Car

I had the same experience while showing the Clarity at the local EV show a couple weeks ago.. I don't recall one person saying they had heard of the Clarity before that day...but I had probably 30 plus who said "I didn't know Honda made a plug in car". I venture a guess that unless you live in a carb state not too many folks have heard of it.

I heard of it because I stopped in at the local dealership to check out the Accord hybrid and just happened to pick-up the Clarity book as an after thought. This would have been probably March 2018. Started looking seriously in May.

At the EV show...the Clarity seemed to interest folks in the 45+ age category. I don't recall talking directly to any young person...they were hanging out with the BMW's and the Teslas...lol

 

I saw the Clarity TV advertisement repeatedly in May. The ads were the reason I became aware of the car. A 2 ton sedan which does 0-60 in 7.5 seconds is not exactly a young guys car. The ad showed a family. Also, to get the entire $7,500 tax credit, the taxpayer must have a $7,500+ tax obligation for the year of purchase.

 

Imagine if Tesla had an ad campaign! And more showrooms! And inventory! They'd better get all those t things soon, because the competition is going to get tougher. Tesla's big edge will be their Supercharger network.

The $52K price of the Japanese Clarity Plug-In Hybrid (with a CHAdeMO Level 3 charging port that bumps the cost a bit) shows that Honda's not making any money on the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid in the US. So not only will selling a lot of them not bring in much profit, but as you said, it will also cannibalize the sales of the profitable Accord. It will be interesting to see how Honda prices and markets the upcoming Pilot Plug-In Hybrid.

 

I think Honda created this car to gather feedback for their upcoming Pilot PHEV. Pilot is very important in the suv/crossover market and having a PHEV option will be a big advantage. Even the best engineers miss things and only real world usage can reveal some problems. For example the HV range issue and too early MM reminders.

 

It will be interesting to see how different the Inside EVs forum for the Pilot Plug-In Hybrid will be from this Clarity PHEV forum. I don't believe it will have the same pioneering feel as this one. Perhaps it will make more sense to have a Honda PHEV forum rather than a separate forum for each PHEV model because many of the questions and discussions about the powertrain will be similar.

 

Most people don't know you can buy a Clarity for the price of a stripped Civic after tax credit, state rebates, and dealer discount. That is truly amazing for all this luxury, efficiency, and tech.

 

I drive Uber/Lyft. No ones heard of it.

 

My 31-year-old daughter was in the market for a new car and drove my Clarity. She liked it. She went out and leased a fire engine red Alpha Romeo Stelvio. Only when she got home did she discover it takes premium gas! She chose style. https://www.alfaromeousa.com/suvs/stelvio


Sent from my iPad using Inside EVs

 

"Most people don't know you can buy a Clarity for the price of a stripped Civic after tax credit, state rebates, and dealer discount."

The point is a good one even if the argument is factually incorrect!

There's no way one can buy a Clarity for the price of a "stripped" down Civic, even ignoring sales taxes, which will be much more on the Clarity (remember that the $7,500 tax credit everyone touts comes later and requires that much in tax obligation).

Want specifics. Let's say you buy that Clarity at an unheard of price of $30,000. Even after the $7,500 federal tax credit, you'd be at $22,500 -- and the base Civic begins at a MSRP of $18,940 or so, with discounts below that!

A more apt comparison is that you can buy a Clarity for only a couple of grand more (after sales taxes and if you qualify for the ENTIRE federal credit) than a well-equipped automatic Civic. Of course, you need somewhere to plug it in, or a garage big enough for it, and a desire to drive a bigger car, and be fine with a trunk rather than a hatchback).

Of course, that also ignores the extra possible $$ to get an electrician in to check on wiring and outlet or install a charge.

 

Don't know about your state but in CA, there's an extra $1500 rebate for the Clarity and local AQMD also gives up to $250 to install a charger at home. All these help lower the initial cost of the Clarity. If you do not qualify for Federal tax credit, you could lease and Honda passes back over $7000 to help lower the lease rate. Overall, the Clarity comes out very close to a Civic with much better standard equipment than the base Civic. It really comes down to your needs but I think the Clarity is very competitive factoring in all the incentives and cost of ownership.

 

I wished I lived in MA, people living in the other 49 states can't get deals like this.

 

Unheard of? Mine was under $30K (I used Trucar, so I didn't need to actually negotiate). I bought in June, have dealers started to "deal" a lot less since then?

The rebates, and price in comparison to the Civic and Accord (hybrid) are part of why I bought. I was originally considering a Hyundai Ioniq (HEV), Toyota Prius, Kia Niro (HEV), and Accord Hybrid, and when I realized I could get the Ioniq PHEV, Prius Prime, Niro PHEV or Clarity for less (after tax incentives), I went that way, even though I live in an apartment and cannot currently charge at home (there are plenty of free and inexpensive level 2 public chargers in my area so I can charge and don't have to operate it solely as a regular hybrid). At $29 and change, and nearly $10K in tax incentives ($7500 from the feds, $1700 from Maryland), I got mine for far less than an Accord LX Hybrid (if I bought the hybrid, I'm not sure if I'd have bought the LX or EX, I was even considering pushing the budget for the EX with leather), $1-2K less than I'd have paid for an Accord LX (non-hybrid) and had I bought a non-hybrid Accord it would have been an EX or EX with leather, and about the same as I would have paid for a Civic EX. I got a much nicer and more comfortable car than the Civics (though the sunroof would have been nice), slightly better than Civic mileage when running in HV only (with a lot more room), and plug in capacity and better real world mileage than the regular or hybrid Accord (less gas use overall, with my effective MPG typically running around 60-90mpg). On a long trip when I run in HV for long stretches at 40-45mpg is the only time I would have been better off with the Accord Hybrid and I'd have had to pay a bit more for the LX for a car with less stuff, or a lot more for the EX (though, again, the sunroof would have been nice).

 

As for the OP, I do find some people know the car, though many haven't heard of it (or they've heard of it but know very little about it).

Those who know the car are those you'd expect. When charging I've had a number of people approach me about it. A Tesla owner who thought it was a cool platform, he liked it was a Honda and that the PHEV, EV and FC vehicles shared a platform. A Prius Prime owner who shopped and test drove the Clarity but choose the Toyota. A Volt owner near the end of his lease thinking about replacements. And a couple ICE owners who are thinking about a hybrid or PHEV as their next car. Most others, non-PHEV or EV owners, and those not in the market for a similar car, might have heard of it, but know little to nothing about it.

Heck, until shortly before buying, I didn't know much. When I first started looking, my very "green" thinking father urged me to get a Volt once I started looking at hybrids instead of ICE vehicles. I told him I couldn't since I'm in an apartment and can't plug in, I thought the plugging in was a necessary part of a PHEV and not just a nice addition. Around that time, I saw an ad for the Clarity on the Honda website (while researching the Accord hybrid) and was still thinking a PHEV wouldn't work at all in my situation. As I researched and realized I could charge on the public networks when I can and run as hybrid-only when I needed, I started looking more at all the PHEVs including the Clarity and found it the one that checked the most boxes for what I wanted (I might have bought the Ioniq PHEV instead if they were just more available around here).

I wonder how many people don't buy a Clarity or other PHEV (like I almost didn't) because they think they must plug in every night, or they think they need to buy an expensive charging station and have it installed at home to make it work. I think more educational efforts on how they actually work need to be made, there is no reason they shouldn't outsell the HEV version of the same or similar cars (especially with tax credits currently making the PHEV close to the cost of the hybrid, and in some cases, cheaper).

 

I've counted at least 20 to 30 as well who have never heard of it.