With PHEV being discontinued....Who's looking at changing?

A number of cities in the EU and UK have implemented charging access on street-lamp poles or via pop-up EVSE posts embedded along the sidewalk curb. This is easier for them because their EVSE's don't usually have attached cables - EVs come with a double-ended "extension cords" style charging cables.

 

Mine was the first Clarity sold in SC (end 2017.) It is the best car I have ever owned and fits my needs perfectly. There is no reason that I would sell it, especially since there is nothing comparable available yet (I have range anxiety.)
But, I would sure love an electric roadster at a fair price.

 

I would love to see Honda introduce the Sport EV into the North American market. Rumours have it that this will be coming in the next few years but there's no word if it will be a worldwide car or just another Japan market only product. IF I can buy that, I'd replace the Clarity. The GM-Honda cars due in a couple years don't really interest me. If Honda doesn't come up with anything exciting (EV) in the next 2-3 years, I may have to switch brands. One that also has a great charging network perhaps...

 

Concerned about resale value now? I buy a car because I need reliable transportation and, when I do, I look for particular characteristics. Unless there's an especially good reason (talk about a rarity!) to unload one, I keep it until it becomes impractical due to potential repair expense or some other factor, such as unsupportively poor efficiency in view of alternatives. My car is a tool, not an investment.

 

I have a 2018 Clarity with only 11K miles on it coming off lease in August. I wanted a RAV4 Prime as a replacement but they are nearly impossible to get and those that are available are selling at a $10-15K premium. I have an AWD long range Tesla Model Y on order for $10K less than the RAV4 would cost. There are no outrageous markups because Tesla doesn't sell through dealers. It also seems to be the only pure electric with a robust enough charging network that long trips can be made with reasonably short stops for charging. I plan to sell the Clarity to one of the used car services like Carvana or Carmax.

 

I just purchased my 2018 Clarity off the lease. Plan to keep it for a long while. I rally enjoy driving it, and I haven't seen anything that will let us go to all-electric for both of our cars (We have a 2020 Bolt), with a daughter & grandkid in central Maine.

 

Clarity PHEV was the last "serial hybrid" on the market - the last of two, as the Chevy Volt was the only other of this type. All other PHEVs are of the "parallel" type - where the primary drive unit is a gasoline engine coupled to an electric motor. Most manufacturers seem to be moving away from PHEVs as they are complex and expensive to build and most consumers (and dealers) don't understand how they work or what their benefits may be.

So, rather than focus on "range anxiety" with BEVs and the possible inability to drive long distances in a non-Tesla product, what we REALLY need to do is to support ANY and EVERY effort to increase the DC charging infrastructure. We know it can be done - Tesla did it for their vehicles - so it's just a matter of convincing governments, utilities and automotive manufacturers to put their weight behind it!

 

I too have a BEV second car, a Kia Niro, and thought hard about going all BEV. I had an ID.4 on order and considered the Ford Mach E and Bolt EUV. My main concern was the charging network and charge rate which I felt was still too immature for those. I ran some sample routes using ABRP for a 600 mile, 10 hour trip that I had taken a couple of times in the Clarity. The results were that I would have had to spend 2 to 3 hours charging in the Chevy, VW, or Ford. The Tesla Model Y, however, came out to just 47 minutes charging for the same trip, convincing me that going all BEV is feasible. I guess I'll find out if I was wrong the first time I try to take a long trip in the Tesla

 

For me clarity is the bridge car to an EV. I just love the car now. While I am worried on parts cost but for now I will keep it for many more years until EV tech mature more and comes down in price.

I live in California which has one of the better EV infrastructure. However part of the problem to home charging is, old houses have 100amp mainline and it can be very expensive to upgrade electrical. Case in point, our house from 70s, to remodel a small portion of kitchen, the current code needs separate line for each appliances, AFCI breakers etc., Its 10-12k electrical work plus 8K kitchen upgrade. To upgrade main panel, current rules for 200amp needs 4 inch conduits which can be just 10K to add one with all the digging.

 

I live in an old condo building with very old wiring with no capacity /no money to upgrade. This is my only vehicle. As with most apartment/condo dwellers, it's inconvenient and most of the time pretty expensive (versus gas) to charge the car at a public charging station. No one talks about that pricing, but in my area, it's steep, and many times, not available. A fully electric vehicle in my situation would be even more inconvenient.
I bought the vehicle, not because I was so intrigued with the technology, but because of the carpool stickers and access to the carpool lane. It could have been a horse and buggy as far as I was concerned, as long as it had the carpool stickers. Access to the carpool lane was fantastic in pre-covid crazy traffic.

1. I think the technology is very good (and maintenance dirt cheap), but the public (besides all the techies on this site) doesn't understand it, and it's just not as sexy as full electric. The Clarity has decent range, but many of the competitors have such small batteries that it's a waste of money (think BMW and Mercedes), especially in colder months.
2. The market is not interested in sedans. It would have been better to have a hatchback than a trunk. Had the vehicle been an SUV, like a Rav4, the outcome would have been very different.
3. Admit it. The styling is polarizing, and most people think it is really ugly. I rarely see a younger demographic driving it. After looking at it for three years, I have finally gotten used to it, but the back of the vehicle is not attractive. The ugliness is somewhat tempered by tinting the windows. The only positive here is that the Prius is even more hideous.
4. As many other readers have also pointed out, looks like Honda lost money on each unit and did not advertise it. Likely they offered it as a pilot vehicle to prove out technology, or it was a compliance car allowing them to sell more gas guzzling larger SUV's.
5. It may be cheaper for Honda to fold the technology into their "regular" vehicle lines, than marketing a separate Clarity line.

All that being said, owning the Clarity has been a very positive experience.

I plan to keep the vehicle another two years or so until there is a good selection of Plug in hybrid SUV's to pick from. And before purchasing, I will test drive them to ensure there are NO angry bees!

 

What you will most likely find is that the Tesla route/charging planner is ungodly accurate!

 

I’ll keep mine. It was a great value in 2018, I think I paid $33,000 and then enjoyed the rebate and tax deductions on that. I just paid it off at 1% interest. I installed a 240V plug in the garage, 90% of my miles are EV. The economics are very favorable. But, it’s important to note that it is a very quiet midsize sedan with lots of great tech and safety features. Like the aluminum panels, ultrahigh strength steel roof bar (that’s why no sunroof option), laminar flow air curtain wheel wells, quiet glass and recycled interior materials. My EV + HV range of 360 miles still beats many other EV only vehicles. I’ll keep it as long as I can.

 

I was rather P..O.. when I first heard the news and wondered about diminished resale value and short supply on parts... A friend first reminded me of the warranty - I have the 5 year extended - and the Honda reputation which Honda must surely want to preserve. That seemed to make sense.

I then went to the dealer and talked with a salesman who had no additional information but confirmed the the warranty had to be honoured; also that many other cars had ceased to be marketed but were still on the road and being serviced.

I fully agree with previous comments on the fact that the Clarity has all the features that I wish and even more than I expected, and ... I really like the car! So, I'm keeping it for as long as it's being services.

 

Well, let me tell you what just happened to me today: I was just getting out of my car at a supermarket lot in Las Vegas when this guy just driving by suddenly stops, rolls down his window and yelled: "SIR, WHAT A CAR! WHERE DID YOU GET IT? CONGRATULATIONS, I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT BEFORE!"
I got shocked and choked so I could only mumbled a "thanks man!". Now what else apart from lack of marketing could generate a reaction like that? Out of California people have no idea of its existence. BTW, I've living in Vegas for five months and haven't seen a single Clarity around, although I know they had two for sale at a dealer in Henderson until recently.

 

The CR-V PHEV will likely come in a year or two. Released the China version earlier this year. The US hybrid version came out about 2 years after the China version, so they have some reliability data on the drivetrain.

https://www.carsbite.com/car-news/dongfeng-honda-cr-v-hybrid-e-goes-on-sale-in-china/9936

 

Sounds pretty much identical to the Clarity drivetrain - only with 52 EV miles of range, possibly because it's a somewhat smaller vehicle.

 

Except it has the 2.0l engine. And, if the 1.3l/100km is accurate, it gets 181mpg.

That’s impressive.

 

Honda may decide to never sell the CR-V plug-in hybrid in the US. They had a prototype Pilot PHEV years ago, but it died on the vine. Will they base their CR-V decision on the lack of demand for the Clarity PHEV or the greater-demand-than-supply-resulting-in-$10K-dealer-mark-ups situation with the Toyota RAV4 Prime PHEV?

 

Seems a bit like wishful thinking as the C-RV is slightly less aerodynamic than and nearly the same weight as the Clarity. I'm guessing the drive motor must be more efficient - but it seems like quite a leap from 110 mpge to 181...

 

The figure of which you speak has nothing to do with actual petroleum fuel consumption over a certain distance. It is merely an exercise in energy conversion. The article mentioned only liters of fuel per 100km, so I took it at face value.

Perhaps something was lost in translation.