Just met another owner of a Clarity today parked in the same parking lot as I. Turns out his wife works for Honda and he confirmed that the Clarity is priced low as a lead car to learn from consumers like us. This explains the great value that compelled us to buy two!
Neat info. If you see him again—tell him to tell his wife that Honda should be monitoring this forum! Even if they just watch and don’t reply, this is consumer feedback beyond any market surveyor’s wildest dream.
Suggestion: Take her and her husband out to eat. Wine and dine them and get her to give us the contact info of an engineer that knows the Clarity. Then we’ll take up contributions for a slush fund to reimburse you and pay him to answer all our questions. Just another of my pipe dreams, sigh...
so we are all "guinea pigs" for Honda (???). LOL. I don't mind at all... the car offers great value for the price after tax rebates.
Nissan used to participate in the early days of the My Nissan Leaf forums. Seemed like a great idea but I think it got a little too busy. Tesla is also known to monitor the TMC forums and Jon McNeil even used to interact with forum members there occasionally on issues. I really wish I could get my hands on one of the full EV Claritys. Talk about no-profit. That is a nice lease deal they have on them.
[QUOTE="... EV Clarity with more range.[/QUOTE] What was (is) the range. We feel we need 350 miles, which fits into the PHEV without a filll-up (and a backup plan)
What was (is) the range. We feel we need 350 miles, which fits into the PHEV without a filll-up (and a backup plan)[/QUOTE] 89 miles
My two gen 1 Insights cost around $22K here in the US (and not much more in Canada), but Australians had to pay about $45K. I believe Honda sold about 8 new gen 1 Insights in Australia and very few in Europe, where the price was also high. I was happy to be a "guinea pig" and still enjoy driving my 2006 Insight. I was surprised when Honda announced the unexpectedly low price for the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid because I assumed the bean counters had regained control after the gen 1 Insight.
The Clarity in Japan, essentially identical, is priced at $55,000 when converted. The difference is not due to exchange rates or taxes or such. A better equipped Vezel, the Japanese name for the HRV, costs less than it does in the US. We are all driving $55,000 luxury cars for twenty-something thousand after incentives. That is just crazy...crazy great!
"Just met another owner of a Clarity today parked in the same parking lot as I. Turns out his wife works for Honda." Always curious about sources. Did he mention what position his wife holds at Honda . . . and what connection she might have to Clarity marketing? Thanks.
Based on the Japan website I think they were only planning on 1000 units, maybe per year, which would also account for price.