Clarity sales for April 2019

The dearth of BEV competition for Tesla is certainly a good measure of [lack of] success. Honda's part of the problem. The company won't bring their new BEV to the US--it is going only to Europe and Japan. And they plan to manufacture only 5,000 of them a year! I guess I shouldn't expect the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines to embrace a battery-powered auto-sphere.

Despite it's paltry 124-mile range, really want one of Honda's new BEVs. I hope I don't have to buy a bunch of them for crash testing, then buy a European version with left-hand drive and a British version with instrumentation in miles and combine the two to make one legal car I could import. At least I won't have to submit the car for emissions testing.

 

Yes, you are right about carbon pricing. I would argue that at least here in CA, BEV sales are largely supply limited. This is true for Model 3 (no inventory), Leaf (HMAC money factor for leasing near rate of some credit cards), all manner of Kia/Hyundai products, Clarity. e-Golf and Bolt are available but at end of model cycle. I3 supply of non-REX is limited in terms of interiors. Also, if you look at 2018 numbers, there is also a big dip in April numbers. Norway's numbers are fabulous (per capita), but they are using wealth from fossil fuel production to finance electric conversion which is a model that will only work in a few places.

 

We should drive carefully, don't break into anything, the low volume means parts are going to be expensive!

 

I don't know about where you live, but I found the Clarity by googling for PEHV vehicles. I'd never heard of it, I've still never heard it mentioned in a Honda commercial. It's like you have to be in some club of geek car buyers to even know it exists. I think they want us guinea pigs pigs to work out the kinks for a couple years before pushing it harder. IMO anyway...

 

I'm still beta-testing the gen-1 Insight, of which Honda built only about 17,000 examples. I remember when I acquired my 2000 Insight I congratulated myself for having the most advanced car in the world. How things have changed in 20 years! The assorted technologies built into our Clarity PHEV makes my Insight seem like a Model T now.

I laugh when I remember another gen-1 Insight owner who had a license plate, "NO PLUG" to celebrate that he never had to plug in his newfangled electrified car. Back in 2000, the weight of the batteries for a plug-in car with decent range likely would have exceeded the Insight's 1,850 lbs.

Just like Honda made only one real TV commercial for the Clarity PHEV, there was only one short-lived ad for the original Insight (I've never been able to find it online). Richard Dreyfuss narrated the ad as we watched a 2000 Honda Insight pull up next to an old VW Microbus plastered with all kinds of "save the Earth" stickers. Dreyfuss said something like, "Why tell people you're saving the planet with stickers on your car when you can do it WITH your car?" Fighting back just 23 years later, VW is preparing to release the all-electric ID Buzz doppelganger of their classic Microbus in 2022 (is it too soon?).

 

One of the ways young people are getting around the problem of ICEs and the unafordabilty of EVs on their meager wages is to forego car ownership altogether. I know several who don't own cars even though they live in VT places with almost no public transportation. I am impressed with their ingenuity and organizational skills in getting where they need/want to go.

 

This whole question about EV vs. ICE vehicle markets around the world is extremely complex.

A quick web search for average costs of electricity around the world reveals prices of about $0.08 / kWh (China) to $0.33 / kWh (Germany), but underneath all these prices are huge variables, including regional variability within each country, USD vs. other currencies exchange rates at any given moment, availability of low cost renewable generation (hydro, wind, etc.), mix & cost of other utility generation fuel sources (natural gas, oil, nuclear, coal), local & national government policies regarding taxation and/or subsidization, type (residential or commercial and fixed price or variable) and length (monthly or 5 year) of consumption contract, and etc. etc. etc.

And a quick web search for average costs of gasoline around the world reveals prices of about $0.13 / liter (Sudan) to $3.35 per liter (Zimbabwe). The core raw material -- petroleum -- is pretty much a globally-priced commodity in a single currency (USD), but the cost to convert raw petroleum to gasoline depends on a huge number of variables, such as local electricity prices, refining capacity & demand, refinery efficiency, transportation costs (ships, rail, pipeline, trucks), etc. And, always the big player in the room, local and national government policy on taxation and/or subsidization, bears a big role in determining local market prices of gasoline as well.

For me, the upshot of all of this includes: (1) gratitude that I don't have to try to figure this all out myself, as auto manufacturers and national governments must try to do, continuously and on a global basis; and (2) reinforcement of my own basic internal compass that would favor personal travel by the cleanest, yet affordable means, consistent with freedom of choice among available means.

IMHO, the Clarity PHEV is (for today, at least) actually the best of both worlds -- its owner may (basically) choose which energy source to use as fuel (electricity or refined gasoline) and the environmental, cost and other consequences that flow from that choice. And the Clarity (at least in the US and Canada) is reasonably affordable too. But, as auto manufacturers and governments conduct their alpha and beta programs over the next few years, don't hold your breath waiting for widespread market penetration in many places by the Clarity or even by the existing or forthcoming crop of pretty expensive hybrid, PHEV or BEV autos.

For any of you who may wish to wade further into this particular quagmire, here are some interesting links: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/electricity-rates-around-the-world.html, https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/average-electricity-prices-kwh.html, https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/ and https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/. (I am sure there are plenty more data sources, too.)