As we've had a Clarity for just over 4 years we drive it with well developed habits. It's always in Econ (EV) mode and it is quite rare for us to push the accelerator past the detent. The car has sufficient acceleration so we don't feel the need for the extra power of HV mode. Consequently we drive for weeks or months without the ICE coming on at all. Once in a while we take a short local drive just long enough (round trip) that the winter range can't make it whiteout kicking on the ICE for a mile or two. Otherwise we just don't have to fill the gas tank very often. By the way we drive 20,000 to 22,000 per year, usually 50-70 miles per day. We are retired so almost all of our short daily trips include returning home when we recharge using solar. We've never plugged in away from home. I became curious when we last put any gas in the car so I looked it up. Today is Jan 9, 2022. The last time we put gas in the car was November 2, 2021 when the car only took 2.3 gallons. I do like to keep it topped off. To make it even better we have a 7.3KW solar system on our roof which supplies enough power over a year that 90% of our house and car electricity use is all from solar. I heard that EV sales were up quite a bit last year, and over 50% of them were plug-in-hybrids. The Clarity is the right car for us at this point. If an under $30K EV can be charged in less than 15 minutes we would finally consider switching to full EV. Until then it's a Clarity for us.
It seems to me that you have demonstrated that a full EV would also be "right" for you. If you can operate well (strictly charging at home) with the Clarity's 17 kWh battery, then why couldn't you operate even better with an EV and a 60 kWh battery (again strictly charging at home)? There will never be a reason (in fact, it is impossible and may remain impossible) to do a full charge in 15 minutes at home. I will argue that your situation is nearly ideal for a full EV right now !
Explain why you need to fully charge in 15 minutes? I'd just plug in at night and wake to a fully charged vehicle. EV's already fit my criteria of 1) Can have cabin pre-heated or pre-cooled in a closed garage (without dying of carbon monoxide poisoning), 2) require no winter warm-up, 3) Quiet, 4) instant torque, 5) never need to pump gas again.
Two months without buying fuel isn’t that unusual. We have similar driving and charging habits, however, we wouldn’t choose an EV only car at any price or with any rapid charging ability. In fact, our next purchase will be another PHEV. The Grand Cherokee 4xe.
I only gave 1/2 of the story, the part of the story where we just drive locally. Yes a PHEV or BEV would work fine for short daily driving. But the other half of our story includes our long distance trips where the PHEV is much better than a BEV because there are no long charge times. About twice each year we take a 550 mile, 1.100 mile round trip, vacation. Without long charge times we make that trip in about 10 hours. Assuming a BEV with 250 miles of range we may have to stop two or three times to charge each direction. If charge times were only 30 minutes it could add 1 1/2 hours to our trip. Ten hours is at the very edge of our tolerance. Anything longer and we would end up spending the night in a hotel. This would cut our stay at our destination from 5 days to 3 or 4 days on site. About 10 times per year we make single day trips of 150 miles, 300 round trip. This normally involves one quick stop to fill the gas tank. If we had a 250 mile BEV we would have to charge. It sounds like a simple thing to do but it's not. We would drive the 150 miles to our destination, drop off all passengers, then locate a charge station where the driver has two choices. One would be to stay while the car charges. This is just a day trip 3 hours one way, three hours at the destination, three hours return. If the driver spends an hour charging he/she loses time with the family or event. The other option is to Uber to the destination or have a relative follow, then Uber back to the car when the charge completes. Way too much nonsense for a day trip. Again this is the type of trip where the Clarity really shines. Those that oppose PHEVs (not on this forum for sure) should understand that on an annual basis we only drive in HV mode for the two seven day vacations plus 10 300 mile day trips. That totals 24 days out of 365. Those who drive a PHEV know that even during those 24 days much of the driving is in EV mode. Further a PHEV doesn't carry with it the higher cost of a larger battery, the extra weight of a larger battery, nor the pollution factor of fabricating a larger battery.
Rent or borrow a Car with a engine. For me if the trip is more than 200 miles. I’ll drive my comfortable diesel truck that gets 30-34mpg on the freeway.
Or walk out to your PHEV and drive off immediately. Or rent or borrow a truck when you need to haul something large. All of these including those that you suggested are viable options, each person decides what vehicle best fits their situation.
