I wish the Clarity was more Voltish

The comparison to the Volt is easy as the Clarity and the Volt are the only longer range PHEVs on the market. Due to size and weight of current batteries having around a 50 mile range and an ICE is no small accomplishment, in fact it is utterly amazing to do while still having an ICE.

The Clarity is a different PHEV than all others on the market.
For the sake of brevity I will make some sweeping generalizations.
Except for the Volt and the i3 basically all other PHEVs are essentially hybrid cars with a bigger battery providing some EV only range.
The i3 is effectively an EV with an optional carry with you generator as a range extender.
Volt is as close to a full EV and Full ICE hybrid in one package. There is an amazing amount of complexity, weight, technology, redundancy, and more in the Volt. The transmission can do wonders for splitting and directing engine output. The vehicle can truly operate in all the ways that count as a full EV or an ICE/hybrid ICE vehicle.

So what is the Clarity?
Although not often compared to the i3, the Clarity is probably closer to the i3 in a high level design. Ignoring the Clarity’s often elusive “gear mode” single speed transmission most of the time the Clarity is an EV with an engine generator that acts as a range extender but also as an electric power booster for times when the electric motors call for more electric energy. While the Volt would simply consume more battery or at worst engage the engine/transmission to provide mechanical and/or electric power generation. Unlike the Volt the Clarity will leverage its ICE more often and under more conditions than the Volt to provide electric power generation. While you can drive the Clarity as basically an EV and avoid ICE use most of the time, the ICE is always there as part of the Clarity’s design mission to supplement the battery and electric motor as needed in a complimentary fashion vs. being a whole secondary power plant like the Volt. Which is better really depends on what trade offs you value more or less.

Of course there is the sometimes baffling logic of why and when the engine actually activates but that is the topic for other threads.

 

Am I the only one who forgets to close the charge door about 90% of the time? I feel like such an idiot when that message comes up, "Charge Door Open" and I say to myself, "Self, you did it AGAIN!". I do not understand why I cannot train myself to close the door after stowing the charge cord.

 

As I said in another thread:

"When I first got the car I did this all the time and with large parts of the DII obscured because of my short person status I often did nor see the warning til I was well down the road. I finally cured this problem by saying a "1,2,3" mantra every time i unplug the charger.

"1", pull the charger.
"2" shut the hatch.
"3" put the lid on the charger.

That seems to work really well unless I get severely distracted--now quite rarely because of ingrained mantra habit."