Real World "Fuel" Economy

I drove from CT to Ohio and back in 2019 across several days and agree its a great longer distance car (one of several benefits vs my Fit EV). I charged in hotel parking lots each night and driving ~75 mph I still averaged over 50mpg combined.

Driving to the mountains in NH the impact of hills is made pretty clear as the average is closer to 40ish (I dont really check)

 

It probably would, but other than it being a terrible idea (https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/05/30/roadshow-downhill-in-neutral-is-illegal-and-dumb-and-a-lot-of-drivers-do-it/) you would probably loose out on recapturing any kinetic energy, which is like, the whole point of a hybrid.

To answer your original question, my real world fuel (gas only) economy has been 42mpg indicated on the dash but 40mpg using a calculator. This was driving I-5 on mostly flat ground, with family and luggage, and keeping up with traffic which between Stockton and LA means 75-80mph.

 

The situation described in that article does not apply to a Clarity. The engine will most likely shut off when going downhill, HV Charge would be the exception. And the car would actually be able to increase the amount of stored energy if speed were allowed to increase by freewheeling downhill. This would be “free” energy. It is possible, with a significant grade, for speed to increase with the lowest set level of regen or if the accelerator is manipulated to hold the power meter at the neutral position. The base level of regen provides a similar experience to an ICE vehicle when the foot is lifted off the accelerator. Some, myself included, find this feature somewhat annoying.

 

We are talking the letter "N" on the gear shift, not neutral as in charging/discharging. If the vehicle is shifted into neutral "N", is it using Regen or friction when braking? I'm assuming all switches are put in the open position meaning no re-capture.

 

When you have the gear selector in N, there is no regen. Any braking you do is with friction brakes only.

 

I remember our first trip through the mountains in Pennsylvania. I especially remember driving down a mountain in HV mode at 70 mph, the engine was off, and I was gaining battery from regen.

 

There might be some gains when coasting up, probably better served feathering the accelerator, keeping it in the green re-gen section for as long as possible, in those instances. As for going down, I'm lucky enough to have a '19 where the re-gen and cruise control combo holds my speed so I really don't see the point in making a sawtooth speed graph.

I guess the better question is the clarity is better able to put the energy in the battery over the coarse of the entire hill or spinning up the generator up to 10k rpm for 5 seconds every half mile. We can ask the guy who commutes down hill to work and was talking about filling his car with rocks to charge his car.

 

My apologies if mentioning keeping the power needle in the neutral position caused confusion with the discussion of the shift selector being in the neutral position.

I don’t know what is used for braking when the shift selector has been placed in neutral. I haven’t done it. If the power needle swings to regen, then it would suggest that regen is being implemented rather than friction brakes.

My suggestion was that if the car could be allowed to freely accelerate from 60mph to 80mph going down hill, some of that additional kinetic energy could be recaptured through regenerative braking as the vehicle is brought back to the starting speed of 60mph. I believe that would be a slight gain compared to holding the speed at 60mph with a click or two of the paddle. In all, it is probably just picking fly s#it out of pepper.

 

If EV is showing on the display, the ICE is not running.

 

Another way to tell if the engine has shut off is when the image of the engine goes dark at the top of the Clarity's energy display.

 

I have traveled 66-67 miles in EV.

 

The car bases EV range estimates on how it was previously driven. In the case above, I was near the end of a long trip using HV. The EV gauge had dropped ~3 bars and range was ~42 miles. Having just crested a mountain summit, I switched the car to EV for the 6-8 mile descent. At the bottom, EV range had increased to ~80 miles, and after a full charge the display showed 102 miles.

 

Just four days ago I fully charged the Clarity. Over the last four days I’ve driven 46 miles in EV mode without overnight charging. The range-o-meter is saying I still have 22 miles to go and I’m guessing I’ll actually get a little more than that. The battery is showing at 50%. We’ve had temperatures in the 70-80s the last few days and that really helps a lot. All of my driving has been in town at no faster than 40 mph.