I purchased a new 2018 Clarity on August 1st 2019 and so far am pleased with it. Using the 1.5 liter engine a little bit and the battery much, the gauge is showing 140 MPG presently. I've gone about 900 miles on about 6.42 gallons since I left the dealer's lot. My recharging lately has been over 50 miles with the highest being 54.3 e-miles. I live in GA but had to buy it in Alabama and I hope there will be no problems with any necessary work done with my local dealer, who doesn't have any Clarity s but the lady at the front desk said they do work on anything Honda makes. I had called them before I bought the car to verify that. There were two 2018 Clarity s in GA (Atlanta area) but those dealers didn't feel bad about charging a 2019 price for a 2018 model so I actually bought the last Clarity that Sam Boswell had in the whole state of AL. He took about 6000 off of the 36,700 price and gave me a fair deal on my trade so I took it and so far am pleased. I have considered getting a L2 charging system but not sure I will really need it as I'm retired and no hard demands on travel. If anything I've said here motivates anyone to give me any advice, I will thank you ahead of time for it. Thanks, Jim
Hi Jim, Clarity is a nice choice. I went with a 2014 BMW i3-REx, 72 mi EV three years ago and a Prius Prime for three years. Pre-retirement, I upgraded the house from 100A to 200A service; added an automatic 16kW emergency generator, and; installed a NEMA 14-50 outlet on the driveway side of the house. It has a JuiceBox 40 Pro which easily charges the BMW in a little over two hours and now feeds our Tesla Model 3, a little over five hours for a full charge. Both cars keep their batteries at a good temperature but this easily exceeds the 1.4 kW of a 110-120VAC line. Also, I turn on pre-conditioning before heading out. In five minutes it takes a cabin at over 100F down to 74F using grid power or up from freezing. My power upgrade was expensive and I fully used the Federal Tax Credit (not available now) to offset $1,000 the next year. I don't know your house but I would look at the hot water heater and dryer circuit as they should have 240 VAC and reasonable current. If close enough to the car parking place, you might rig up a switch between one or the other to give a 24 A, 240VAC charging option. Not optimal but certainly faster than cursing the lost range from heat or cold. If you need an extension cord, DO NOT WASTE A 12 A CORD! You really need one rated at 15-20 A as I've melted several including trying to get a water-proof setup. They really are not up to spec for our cars. Bob Wilson
Jim, Welcome to the club! I also have a 2018 Clarity, now at 10,800 miles with 2,700 of that on gasoline. The mpg displays don't make any sense unless the entire trip is on hybrid mode, as they do not account for the electric usage. AFAIK there is no readout of electric efficiency on this car - but you can choose to measure energy in on your own with a Kill-a-Watt for 110 or a smart level 2 EVSE. By the way I do track gasoline fills and gas-hybrid mileage, so I can report right around 42 mpg in winter and 49 mpg in summer. My electric range numbers were 40-44 miles in winter and 58 miles in summer - I have no interstates on my commute, so that is about 2/3 at 60 mph and the rest 25-50 mph on local streets. I have decided to stick with 110V charging. If you are home for 10-12 hours each night, and don't take multiple trips during the day that in total exceed your EV range, I don't see a need to recharge the car in 2 hours. I am always fully charged or nearly so in the morning. I wouldn't object to level 2 charging, but see it as an unnecessary expense when the Honda 110V cord is working fine. Also, I don't have time-of-use electric rates so no need to compress my charging period. By the way, very nice purchase price deal. I am amazed at what a good deal this car is after the credits are applied (since Honda doesn't require additional packages to get the features you want, as most other brands require).
