EV Range

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by TigerTown, Mar 20, 2018.

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  1. TigerTown

    TigerTown New Member

    We purchased a 2018 Clarity and installed a level 2 charging station at home. I am new to any type of electric or hybrid car, my last vehicle was a Suburban. We love the car. However, at full charge the top EV range is always 37 miles. The car was promoted as having range of 47 miles, is 37 normal? We charge the car in an insulated garage.
     
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  3. loomis2

    loomis2 Well-Known Member

    It will increase when the weather warms up, and to a certain extent how you drive it. We have had an all-electric Leaf for years and a level 2 charger (that was a good choice to get one, btw) so I am accustomed to how the range can fluctuate with temps. Some people on this board who live in warmer climates have already seen it show around 60 miles of ev range. The highest I have seen in Cincinnati so far is 42, but I expect to see 47 soon.
     
  4. bpratt

    bpratt Active Member

    The other thing that reduces EV range is running the electric heater. When the temperature in my area was in the 20s and 30s, I also got less than 40 miles on a charge. On days lately when the temperature reaches the low 60s and I don't need the heater, my miles per charge have been in the mid 50s.
     
  5. Timothy

    Timothy Active Member

    Here is some more helpful info: http://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/what-kind-of-cold-weather-range-to-expect.668/

    I really think Honda should be more upfront about this (I know our dealer was not). During warm spells we have had EV estimates over 50, so all is good now. But when we first fully charged the car on a very cold day it showed 32 miles of EV. That link above helped me to feel less worried about it. I think it would actually help Honda to be frank about cold/hot weather EV performance. Once we understood it, we felt even better of our choice of the Clarity over other models that had EPA ranges in the 20's.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2018
  6. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    I agree with the above comments. In my experience with the car it calculates the EV range based partially on my previous drive habits, and of course is also impacted by the ambient temperature. If I'm light on acceleration, keep the heater off, and am not driving above 55 mph my next recharge EV estimate will be higher.

    The two things I can do to conserve battery charge are 1) slow and easy acceleration. 2) keep the heater off and use the heated seats.

    Our estimated EV range is roughly 35 to 45 miles when we start. But I can easily drive several miles without that estimate changing at all. Driving away from our house we go down a 1/2 mile hill (from 750' elevation to 500') where the battery charge increases. Then most of our destinations are on such a slight downhill it's impossible to notice. So it isn't uncommon to start with 43 EV miles range, and end up at our destination 7 miles away still with 43 EV miles range. On our return trip home we still don't see much loss in estimated range - until we hit that hill which quickly sucks up 2 to 3 miles of range over the 1/2 mile of the hill.

    On a flat road with posted 35 mile per hour speed limits the car can wiz along using very little battery power. It's amazing.
     
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  8. Rajiv Vaidyanathan

    Rajiv Vaidyanathan Active Member

    I have had the car for 3 months now and 1200+ miles and the fully charged range has never hit 40. The highest I got one day last week (when temps hit the high 40s) was 39.8 miles. That was exciting to me. :)
     
  9. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    I took that trip this evening, from home to church and back. Here are the EV range reading vs the miles traveled.

    Starting out at home. Zero miles on the A trip odometer. 44.4 miles on a fully charged battery.
    [​IMG]

    4.1 miles from home but only 1 mile of EV range decrease. This makes some sense since one mile from our house is a 1/2 mile downhill where regen can add a bit more to the battery charge.
    [​IMG]

    At my destination 6.6 miles from home, but only 2.2 EV miles reduction.
    [​IMG]

    On the way home close to the bottom of the hill. Now traveled 11.5 miles but only 4.7 EV miles used. The significant thing is this leg of the little trip is slightly uphill in total.
    [​IMG]

    At the top of the hill. I guess the motor pushing that heavy car up the 14% grade simply takes a lot of power.
    Now miles traveled = 12.5 and EV range used = 7.4. Still pretty good.
    [​IMG]

    At home. A total of 13.4 miles traveled using only 8.5 EV miles. Not bad at all. Take a look at the left battery charge level indicator. Not bad for 13.4 miles traveled. For the gas gauge on the right... We filled the tank on December 20th after a road trip. Then it took 2.5 gallons on March 1 after I took a little trip out of town that ended with using the ICE a bit. Today March 20th you can see it is still full. I know the engine kicked on a couple of times but not enough to move the gauge.
    [​IMG]

    I must admit that I don't think I could have driven any more energy efficient that this trip. There were no cars in front of me or behind me that interfered with my driving technique.

    Fun results for our cars huh!
     
  10. loomis2

    loomis2 Well-Known Member

    Next time you make the trip try to do it as fast as legally possible and see what the difference is in electricity used. In other words, don't be as energy efficient as possible, but also don't floor it so the engine kicks on, either.
     
  11. Viking79

    Viking79 Well-Known Member

    I expect most will get between 25 miles and 60 miles on electric, depending on conditions. Mine finally reached the 40s after it warmed up some, it was 20s or low 30s most of the winter. Best is over 50 though, even being only 45F or so.
     
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  13. Kieran973

    Kieran973 New Member

    Jdonalds, those are excellent results, thanks for posting. At that rate (13.4 real miles traveled over 8.5 miles of EV range), if you just drove that same route back and forth in the same conditions (traffic, temp, etc), you could go 69.36 miles before the battery was completely depleted.

    What was the outside temperature when you made this trip? Your average speed? Were there many full stops (traffic lights, stop signs, etc), or were you mostly traveling at a steady state? Thanks.
     
  14. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    You can see the temperature reading on the dash board, about 50 degrees F. Ignore the first one which said 59 degrees as that was just out of the garage.

    This is a trip of stops-and-goes. The longest single stretch is 2 miles (including that hill), and there is another 1 mile segment. The rest is a series of 1/4 mile pieces with traffic signals and stop signs.

    Loomis2 suggested making the same run to see the opposite effect, that is pushing as hard and fast as I can to see how much charge I burn through. That's a reasonable request. I'll try it next Tuesday night under roughly the same conditions.
     
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  15. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    Okay I repeated the same route as above this evening. This time the goal was to use as much power as possible on the same route. When I first got in the car I thought it was going to be difficult to do the opposite of what I usually do; use as much power as possible. But I used every trick I could including full pedal acceleration right up against the detent so I wouldn't start the engine. When behind another car I'd drop back, then accelerate over and over. I used full pedal starts from stop signs and signals. I even heard the tires chirp a couple of times as I accelerated into a turn. I didn't coast to a stop, rather I stayed at speed then braked hard when needed. That way I would minimize regen. I went over the speed limit on almost every segment of the ride. I don't think there was much more I could do to burn charge. This was EV mode all the way.

    The results are better than I thought they would be.

    Start at home: 0 miles on the B trip gauge, 46.3 EV range.
    - 4.2 miles from home, 41.6 on EV range
    - 6.7 miles at church, 38.5 EV range
    - Returning home at the bottom of the 1/2 mile hill 11.7 miles into the round trip, 34.3 EV range
    - (didn't get a photo of the instrument cluster at the top of the hill)
    - At home in the garage with 13.5 miles traveled, 29.9 EV range.

    So I started with 46.3 and ended with 29.9 using 16.4 EV miles to travel 13.5 actual.
    On the first trip last week I started with 44.4 and ended with 35.9 using 8.5 EV miles to travel the same route.
    So power used, at least as indicated by the EV range value, was close to double on this trip.
    Last week the ambient temperature was about 49-60 degrees F. This week 64-80 degrees F.


    Starting at home. 46.3 EV miles indicated, 80F
    [​IMG]

    4.2 miles into the trip, 41.6 EV range left, 79F
    [​IMG]

    At my destination, 6.7 miles, 38.5 EV range left, 80F
    [​IMG]

    11.7 miles into the round trip at the bottom of the `1/2 mile hill, 36.3 EV range left, 66F
    [​IMG]

    At home in the garage, 13.5 miles traveled, 29.9 EV miles left, 64F. Note how high the EV range gauge is. I think I could squeeze more than 30 miles out of the car with that level of charge.
    [​IMG]

    That was fun. Next week I'm going to repeat the trip using Sport mode. The numbers won't be comparable because the ICE will be on, but it will be interesting to see the results, and to experience Sport mode.
     
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  16. loomis2

    loomis2 Well-Known Member

    That was very thorough. Thank you for taking the time to do this. I occasionally use sport mode on non-highway routes, always with full regen paddles, and I have never had the ice come on. However, there haven't been a lot of hills on my routes. I would try your next experiment with all ev if you are able.
     
  17. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    Is that to say without Econ?
     
  18. Schaffer970

    Schaffer970 New Member

    Clarity.jpg So there's been considerable discussion regarding skewed HV range, but this is the first time I experienced skewed EV range. Went to the local cross country ski area over the weekend. It is about 45 miles from home and we usually get about 32 miles going on EV at which time ICE kicks in (angry bees until we get back to two bars when it quiets down) and then the rest of the way to the top using ICE. Coming back home I set it on cruise control and can make it within about 2 miles of home on EV (coming back is mostly downhill so the battery recharges). The next day I drove a couple of miles to work (ICE) and charged on a level two charger. The gauge showed 66.7 miles of EV range. I doubt that this would be the case. I think the EV range is being inflated due to the long downhill recharge from the day before. It's fun to see what the range numbers will do.
     
  19. John Richards

    John Richards New Member

    Not sure if this is the correct forum. The Range display is based partially on your recent driving distances. I had two months with no gas, EV only, about 2000 miles. Had a reasonable range. The next time I filled up it has 1000 mi; the range display on the Honda owners manual says 2200. It would be nice just to have a decent range display for the gas (e.g., gal * 42).
     
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  20. loomis2

    loomis2 Well-Known Member

    Econ is always on
     
  21. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    Then I think I already did that drive.
     
  22. loomis2

    loomis2 Well-Known Member

    It sounded like you were saying you never had it in sport mode before.
     
  23. dstrauss

    dstrauss Well-Known Member

    @jdonalds
    1. Really impressed with your HV range :D
    2. Good job analyzing the EV data - I fear my upcoming 100 degree summer days
    @TigerTown - like @jdonalds, I'm a recovering Prius owner which means we don't drive like old grandpas (well, maybe not much), but are light on the accelerator and brakes. Some of our larger streets here in Midland are 40-45mph, and so many people will tromp on the accelerator to get up to the speed limit and then brake hard at the next stoplight; it also helps to at least cruise at the speed limit for extended distance. Once you become a hypermiler (I can see @jdonalds smiling all the way in Midland) its hard to break the good habits you learned.

    My problem is my Clarity is too peppy for a Prius owner and you can really let loose with the torque it generates...
     

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