A PHEV far superior to the Clarity is coming next summer

I believe they're claiming 39 miles on a charge.
My Volt was rated at 38 and I managed my 38 mile daily commute without ICE reliably for 9 months of each year, consuming between 9 and 12 gallons of gasoline during the remaining cold weather months.
For me this was an acceptable arrangement.

 

Count us in the minority. We own a Clarity, and unless they price the RAV4 stupidly high we will own one - though by the time we are ready to buy a better option might present itself. Battery range isn't an issue for us. We are retired so no long commute. Winters in Las Vegas aren't cold enough to drastically lower EV miles. We both like sitting up higher in traffic. Much better visibility, and in LV you want to see as much as possible. There are a lot of drivers here who should not be driving.

 

This is definitely nice car. I am not trading my clarity though.

I am looking forward to 7 seat/ 5+2 Phev/all electric.
The only possible one in reasonable price in this segment is pacifica hybrid and upcoming Model Y(pricier). It is a sweet spot if pilot/more miniwans can hit. Volkswagen has something but I think it will be eons before USA will see the car.. Until then... clarity it is. I can see why someone will chose this car over clarity but trading an existing one and taking a depreciation hit is not for me.

 

You make a good point about Honda's wishy washy commitment to the Clarity. I don't imagine we will see anything like that with a Toyota. Quite the opposite, I've been hearing about this release since BEFORE I bought my Clarity, and I expect it to make huge inroads into the market. It will bring in a whole new range of customers, and appeal to existing hybrid owners. When I purchased my Prius Prime back in 2017, it was during one of Toyota's big incentive drives with one weekend only lowered prices. when i got the the dealership in mid afternoon, and I said i wanted to test drive the Prime, the reaction was outloud, "not a RAV4?" They had sold 13 cars that day, and 13 of them were RAV 4s. That's all anyone wanted to look at. (The 14th sale was my Prime.)

 

Sure they can be. We have a Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel that gets 28-30mpg on the freeway, can tow a 7200# trailer, gets flat towed behind our motorhome and with true 4x4 capability is a remarkable off-road vehicle.

Most, and by that I mean 99%, of these AWD SUV’s will do nothing more than transport their owners to work and the grocery store on paved roads. They are just larger, heavier, more expensive vehicles doing what any ordinary sedan or station wagon could do.

I welcome more PHEV options. They can allow for almost all daily driving on EV as well as lengthy road trips as hybrid gas/electric vehicles that get 50mpg. The Clarity is like having a BEV and an ICE for the price of one car.

 

If the price was in a similar ballpark for a Clarity and this, I would probably purchase this without much hesitation.

The decreased range is a bummer, but 39 miles (and even less in winter) is still plenty for me to all of my in town driving I do. The spare tire would be great for me for all the road trips I take. Honda's lack of commitment to the Clarity makes me feel like the unwanted step-child, and makes me worried about the future of my car in terms of resale value and in repairs. Overall though, I'm just happy to see the PHEV market expanding, and I wish Honda was more committed to it.

 

Toyota's Prius Prime on the other hand claimed 25 miles, and I was lucky to get that 4 months out of the year. 17 miles became normal by October (in Rhode Island/New England) and in December-Feb it was even less. My best is the Volt's 38 was a more realistic claim than Toyota's 25 mile claim.

 

I could get a solid 45 - 48 miles of mixed use miles electric range during summer months in the Volt.

 

Same here !

I'll keep the Clarity until something revolutionary comes thru like a Pilot or CRV PHEV/EV.

The only other brand I like is the BMW line and wish the 530e would have more EV miles....

 

I wholeheartedly agree that this will be an great car and will sell like hot cakes. But in Canada this likely won’t be in the same price range. In BC where I am, clarity is 32k CAD after incentives. RAV4 will likely be about 8-10k more.

 

BMW bumped the battery size by 30% for 2020, so it now gets 20 miles of electric range for $54k+ (2WD version)

 

I’m in! In fact I’ve already contacted a Toyota dealer about availability in Michigan. Looks like that’s a go. I really like my Clarity, but an AWD SUV PHEV with over 30 miles range (more than my average daily need) is just what I’ve been waiting for. Others are coming too, but Toyota has such an excellent reliability record with hybrids, the RAV will be hard to beat.

 

It shouldn't be that bad because they are using a heat pump. Depending on temperatures...

 

We bought the crv over the rav4 after test driving both. The rav4 just seemed cheap feeling to us. The hybrid crv seems interesting but need to see the fuel economy first. Personally I love the clarity and see no reason to take on another $10k in debt to replace the clarity.

 

I have always figured the Clarity to be a 5 year transitional vehicle for me. I came close to purchasing a Tesla in 2018 but figured by 2023 model year the technology will be much better than it is today...battery capabilities, powertrain etc. I truly hope the public charging infrastructure will be more widely available, uniform AND reliable as well.

I currently own a Toyota Rav4 Hybrid...very nice machine and would expect the same of a Toyota PHEV model. I have no qualms recommending Toyota's hybrid technology. Having been a hybrid owner for nigh on 20 years...it has been amazing to see the advancements...slow at first but seemingly exponential nowadays.

It is always great to play with new toys but I'll try to pass on the urge to splurge for a few more years. I'll be looking in earnest in 2022. "Try" being the operative word. Much depends on the Clarity long term reliability which is debatable at this point given the...shall we say...lack of enthusiasm demonstrated by Honda and Honda USA.

Good times.

 

I currently own a Clarity but I put my deposit down on Monday for a new Ford Mustang Mach e....and yes I realize it only reserves a place in line, not a car. I like driving the Clarity but I don't particularly enjoy owning a compliance car. I've been looking at BEV's a lot lately and it looks like the Mach e will be comparable to the Tesla Model Y. Its a bit pricey granted but I've had Mustangs before and like them. AWD will be a plus and it is loaded with tech. Anyway, the deposit is fully refundable and it gives me 6 months or more to research other BEVs and test drive the Mach e while I make up my mind. Ford intends to only make 50,000 of them next year due to battery availability and there were 14,457 people ahead of me in line when I registered even though Monday was the first business day the website became active. Glad to see so much interest in electrics....it is better for all of us.

 

Nah

 

I haven't put down a deposit on a Mach e, but am watching that one closely. My next car will most definitely be a full BEV. I'm ready to leave ICE/PHEV behind permanently.

 

The Rav4 Prime only has 83 hp EV power. The Clarity has 121. With less EV hp and less EV range it will be more difficult with the Rav4 Prime, in normal driving, not to run the ICE. A small SUV would be nice from a cargo perspective, but it will likely come at the expense of road and wind noise. Our Clarity PHEV is a near luxury car sedan; it is a completely different beast than an SUV. The Rav4 Prime will compete with the new CR-V hybrid which Honda has announced, not our Clarity.

 

Well- since we're all expressing personal opinions here, the idea of going to an SUV- even with AWD and more power and overall efficiency - yet with less EV range- makes me sick. I'm no fan of SUV's, and less range is very unappealing. Hopefully, a next car for me would be 100% electric, efficient and reliable.

All of this is yesterday's tech- understandable in 2017/2018 (Clarity), not in 2021. Interesting that Honda seems to be abandoning the PHEV and not embracing BEVs- while Toyota at least feels they can make a profitable, mainstream EV that comes close to the Clarity in range (but not efficiency).

And while in the US- this strategy may work- It will fall flat on its face
everywhere else- as the fantasy of low petrol prices dies and consumers reject dinosaur propulsion tech.

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