April Sales Numbers

Moderators: Would you please set the parameter allowing pinch/zoom for the monthly sales report. The front is so small even on my galaxy s9+ screen.

 

Go Honda!

 

In Toronto, my Honda dealer told me each dealership only has 6 allocated for the full year, while people are lining up to grab them. One of my friends was told by one dealership they already met their quota and stopped taking orders, another dealership also sold 6 already but is willing to find one from others, maybe far from the city. If Honda can boost the production, the sales figure will climb even higher.

 

Hi I placed my order last month in Stouffville, and I think there were 7 people waiting before me, but the dealer never said they had a maximum quota they could sell. I've been asking them about the status every week but they still don't have any updates. I have no idea how much longer I need to wait

 

Strange how Prius Prime is on track for a 25,000+ year...I'm sorry, even as a longtime Prius owner it is inferior to the Clarity PHEV.

What's even more stunning (not surprising) is the nonexistent Clarity BEV - 53 units in April...

 

I can't understand why Honda made a BEV with only 89 miles range while the PHEV already has 47 miles.

 

I would guess it's an unfortunate result of the Clarity being a "multi-platform" car. A Swiss army knife can do several things, but none of them particularly well. BEVs need to be deigned to be fully electric cars from the ground up.

That said, an 89 mile range certainly would compete successfully against several BEVs from the last generation, such as the BMW i3, the 2016 Leaf, and the 2016 VW e-Golf.

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Right; I think Honda figured out that they could relatively easily convert the Clarity to have a bigger battery pack at minimal development cost over the PHEV and FCV models and capture enough lease volume to pick up some EV credits in California at a relatively low marginal design and production cost while buying time both to develop a platform more suited to battery power and to watch the market to see where an EV might have a good sales niche.

 

"Deigned"? Well perhaps also deigned, but I meant designed.

(You already knew that, right?)

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For the secret behind the Prius Prime relatively high sales figures look at sales of traditional Prius. They have fallen the last 4 years even with the new model introduction, and once PP came out the sales fell such that Prius Prime + Prius sales never equaled previous year's Prius sales numbers.

I think a large percentage of the buyers are those that would have bought a Prius to begin with and the Prius buyers have moved to Rav4 hybrid or other brands of efficient cars or back to less efficient vehicles.

I hope that once people discover the Clarity, sales will take off. They do seem to have a large supply in the US vs how many they sell a month, so hopefully they start moving.

 

I was ready to move to another platform, having owned two Prius cars. Believe me they served their purpose, providing excellent near 50 mpg efficiency, and they were super reliable. The cargo space was enormous. Our 2008 Prius is pushing toward 200,000 in our son's hands with ZERO failures of any kind over 10 years; not so much as a loose screw. But there were things I never liked about the Prius.

- I hated the center gauge cluster on the dash.

- I was very disappointed that the Gen IV didn't get 60 mph. After Toyota announced the small percentage mpg increase over the Gen III I thought the overall design of a Hybrid was reaching it's practical limits.

- I very much disliked the design direction Toyota was taking with the Prius and Prius prime. Frankly I couldn't even get my wife to sit in a Prime.

I was ready to move onto something that had real impacts on fuel economy, and hopefully wouldn't have some of the drawbacks (in my opinion) of the Gen IV Prius line. It didn't take more than a few hours to get excited about the Clarity.

- Super nice gauges

- Nice looking inside and out

- A big jump in economic driving, especially with solar charging.

The Prius was the gold standard but there are now so many other choices they had to lose market share.

Honda predicted 75,000 Clarity cars sold over 5 years. Not a big number as car sales go. That would be a run rate of 1,250 / month. The PHEV and BEV are at 1,101 for April so we're not there yet. Other than the price that can scare some people off I see no reason that the Clarity wouldn't be a big seller. Given our forum positive comments the Clarity should be selling much better if the word gets out.

 

The solution is very simple - CALL IT THE ACCORD PHEV. I'm dead serious folks - had this car carried the Accord badge (and a touch more Accord exterior design, even with wheel skirts) it would not only be blowing the top off of sales, it would have killed the need for the Accord Hybrid.

Honda, just a thanks will do - you may use my insightful (pun intended) suggestion royalty free...

 

"So it's kinda like a Tesla meets the Prius thing?"

I realized this morning that I am a TERRIBLE ambassador for the Clarity. I stopped at a drive through to pick up breakfast, and the young man (early 20's?) said "Hey, do you plug this thing in?" and of course I said yes, and he asked - what kind of mileage and I said 50 miles on battery.

He then scowled a bit and said that won't get you very far and I told him it handles all my in town driving and I haven't put gas in in since March. He then said I guess you have another car for longer trips and my light bulb finally came on and realized I hadn't explained it was a PHEV so I told no, it has a gas engine and can do another 300 miles on gas alone like a hybrid - and that's when he said "So it's kinda like a Tesla meets the Prius thing?"

Folks, when the chance comes along, be sure to explain from the beginning that a PHEV is kinda Tesla meets Prius...

 

I got my Clarity from this dealer but I was very lucky. The model I wanted just happened to arrive there the day before so I snapped it up. "Neaner neaner." <g>