Has Anyone Returned Clarity BEV Yet?

Discussion in 'Honda' started by cedman77, Feb 6, 2020.

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  1. cedman77

    cedman77 New Member

    Just wondering if anyone has returned their Clarity BEV yet? We have to return ours November 2020. My wife loves her car and would love to extend the lease if possible but I don't who to even call to ask.

    If we have to return the car, does anyone know if they will charge excessive wear and tear on tires? It's was my understanding Honda just takes the car back and doesn't even attempt to sell it. It would seem unfair to charge us for tires, just to have the sit on the lot.
     
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  3. Edd

    Edd New Member

    What is a Bev??

    Edd
     
  4. cedman77

    cedman77 New Member

    BEV = Battery Electric
     
  5. Dan Albrich

    Dan Albrich Well-Known Member

    I've actually never leased a vehicle, but if you google it generally you'll find a bunch of information. i.e. You should have the option to purchase the vehicle as one of your options. -- I think. I do know they are not for sale new (only lease) but I'd be surprised if that precludes buying the car at lease return time.
     
  6. Mines is due in dec, but you can call the honda financial to extend the lease for another 12 months. It's a great deal for 20,000 miles a year.

    Sent from my SM-G973U using Inside EVs mobile app
     
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  8. cedman77

    cedman77 New Member

    Hey Dan,

    Clarity EV lease is kind of a strange animal. You actually can't buy your lease vehicle. There's no option to purchase it. That's what I was wondering about, if I can't buy it, and I've never seen anywhere where you can buy a used one, it doesn't seem right to be charged for excessive wear.
     
  9. cedman77

    cedman77 New Member

    If we have an option to extend the lease for another year at the same payments and 20,000 miles, we'll definitely extend it.
     
  10. Pooky

    Pooky Active Member

    It might be possible since something of the likes of the Toyota Mirai ended up on the used market. That's purely hopeful speculation, however. Keep an eye out over this year to see if you can find any pop up on the used market since leases should start expiring for most people this year (leasing of the 2018 models began in December 2017, IIRC).
     
  11. DucRider

    DucRider Well-Known Member

    The Fit EV was the same lease only type deal. Never heard of anyone getting dinged on Excess wear and tear, but that lease included all maintenance and even Comp & Collision insurance. Unlimited miles and they even paid for tires when I needed them, but some got dinged for tires. It's going to depend some on the dealer, but when I swapped the Fit EV for the Clarity Electric, they hardly even glanced at it.
    Fit EV owners were offered 2 year lease extensions at a reduced rate ($199 instead of $238), and there were even used ones offered for "Re-lease". Nothing ever showed up on the used market that could be purchased that I am aware of.
    Likely that they will offer an extension of some sort. They've already built them and really have nothing to lose (the Fit EV extension had a clause stating that Honda was under no obligation to repair it and could terminate the lease).
     
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  13. cedman77

    cedman77 New Member

    I called Honda Financial yesterday and the gentleman put me on hold about 6-8mins because he wasn't sure if they we're going to offer any extensions. He said he spoke to his supervisor and this this time, he said there isn't any programs for extending the lease for the Clarity Electric. He said they might, but someone from their lease maturity team will call us about 2-3 months before our lease expires.
     
  14. DucRider

    DucRider Well-Known Member

    Seems to me they did reach out and make the offer on the Fit EV, but can't remember the timing.

    We weren't anywhere near the first to lease the Fit EV, so the extension program was well known long before our lease was due. Would be nice to know with a little more warning if they are not going to offer an extension as shopping for a replacement vehicle can take a little time. If we were near the end of the Clarity lease, would have looked hard at the $189/mo with $189 down lease on the 2020 Bolt.
     
  15. Dan Albrich

    Dan Albrich Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the correction regarding lease-only for Clarity EV. I admit that I don't understand what Honda gains by not permitting one to purchase post-lease; especially if they also do not permit lease extension. Do they wish to reacquire a bunch of modestly used Clarity EVs for their Clarity museum?
     
  16. DucRider

    DucRider Well-Known Member

    The Fit EV's were hand built one-offs taken from the factory floor and finished at one of their R&D divisions (about 40 per month for a total of ~1100). The Clarity may very well be similar as the volume was so small that it may not have made sense to set it up to run on a normal line.

    "Lease only" gives Honda a lot more control over and data from the vehicles. If they sold instead of leased the vehicles, people could take them wherever they wanted and Honda would have to provide parts and service availability. There is a clause in the lease that if you move outside CA/OR, you are required to get permission from Honda to take the Clarity BEV there or the lease will terminate.

    They did repurpose some of the Fit EV's in programs like car sharing in "underserved communities"
    [​IMG]

    https://www.opb.org/news/article/electric-car-sharing-low-income-housing/

    My guess is they will extend the leases for those interested as it is essentially free money for them at this point. Cars are already built, customer pays for repairs and maintenance. The Fit EV included insurance ($0 deductible comp & collision), all maintenance (they even put new tires on mine when it was time). So extending the Fit leases cost them more than doing so for the Clarity Electric. There are still a few people driving their Fit EV's from extensions or re-leases.
     
  17. cedman77

    cedman77 New Member

    I have heard that Clarity EV is a compliance vehicle. Honda needed the car to meet MPG requirements set by California. Guess we'll wait and see if we get a call from Honda come September. If not, that 2020 Bolt lease is an awesome deal. Do you mind telling me where you saw it? $189 month, $189 down and 10k miles a year?
     
  18. DucRider

    DucRider Well-Known Member

    The term compliance vehicle is misunderstood by many, and in the broadest brush often refers to any EV not made by Tesla.

    EV's are needed not to MPG requirements in California and other"CARB" states, but to garner ZEV (zero emission vehicle) credits.
    Manufacturers are required to have credit equaling 9.5% of sales for 2020. It's a fairly complicated system, and different vehicles earn varying amounts of credits, so it doesn't mean that 9.5% of vehicles sold must be EV's.
    PHEV's can count for only a portion of those credits (categorized as TZEV credits - the T is for Transitional).

    If a manufacturer does not have the required number of credits for their sales volume, they can either "buy" them from the State for $5K per credit, or purchase them from manufacturers with excess credit at wahtever "market price" is. The first several quarter that Tesla showed a profit it was due to their sales of these credits.

    A compliance car is sold in limited quantities and limited markets (CARB States or some subset) solely to earn credits. They are often sold or leased at a loss. The Clarity FCX and BEV are most definitely compliance vehicles. The PHEV cersion has been - at times - essentially restricted to CA, and would then fall in that category. When it was available nationally, it does not meet the original definition of compliance vehicle.

    Some dealerships in were offering that deal to Oregon residents (Tonkin Chevy had it on their website), but there is zero inventory at the moment. It required using the $2,500 OR rebate as "cash on the hood" and assigning it to the dealer. I think the lease for others was ~$238?.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2020
  19. jujubslick

    jujubslick New Member

    I have a BEV that i want to turn in early. My lease matures on 1/20/22. I am moving out of range of a dealership that can provide service and charging is sparse. Before I try to see if Honda will let me turn it in early I'm looking to see if anyone else would be interested in taking over my lease. I love the car, I just don't need it anymore.
     
  20. Hey guys, this discussion had me wondering what happens next...so I just called Honda and they told me I could turn in my EV early with no penalties. I am 6 months away from my end of lease. I would have to schedule an appointment with SGS and they come to me to inspect. Afterwards, I would just drop off the vehicle back to the dealership.

    They also confirmed that there is an extension for this lease from honda financial. I am based out of CA.
    Hope this helps!

    Side note, I'm wondering if I could turn it in early due to the COVID19 aggressive lease deals going on right now with other manufacturers.

    Sent from my SM-G973U using Inside EVs mobile app
     
    Peter CC likes this.
  21. Hey there, @cedman77. Just wondering if you'd heard back from Honda yet. I understand the lease should be up in a couple months from now and it'd be great if they decided to extend it.
     
  22. cedman77

    cedman77 New Member

    Actually, SGS has been calling us to schedule an appointment for a vehicle inspection. Funny how 6 months has totally changed our situation. My wife who has been driving the Clarity exclusively is now working from home 100% of time due to Covid. Extending the lease now doesn't make any sense anymore. We do love the car, and I have been using it for my commute. My commute is only 26 miles round round trip and it no longer makes sense for us to keep it. $400 in California registration, insurance and the $212 car payment for the car just doesn't add up. Cheaper for me to drive my already paid off 2009 Subaru Forester.

    I will call Honda's Lease Maturity Center and for giggles see what they offer me and report back.
     
    Domenick likes this.
  23. cedman77

    cedman77 New Member

    Just got off the phone with Lease Maturity Center. They told me we have the option of extending our lease for another 12 months. Those 12 months however is month to month and we're not lock in for the full year. Payments remain the same as well as the 20,000 miles allowance.
     
    Domenick likes this.

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