I thought I’d post my impressions of the car. A little background - I’m still happily driving my 2005 Honda Element and my wife has moved to the Clarity from her incredibly reliable 2002 Honda Civic. The Clarity is now our primary vehicle and my Element is accumulating a lot less road time! Needless to say, the initial learning curve was a little steep thanks to all the modern electronic aids. One of the really good points about the car is that you can just put it in drive and go. The car takes care of itself while you learn your way around all the features. We’ve used the car mostly for local driving except for a couple of trips to town on the highway in HV mode. I just filled up the gas tank and it only took 6 litres. That’s nice especially since gas here is at $1.60 Cdn per litre! At our hydro rate of $0.08840 per kWh we’ve spent about $15.00 Cdn. on charging. We’ve installed a level 2 charger and the decreased charge times really help to keep us running on battery power. The car feels solid and well built. I’m still not used to how quiet it is even with the ICE running. Honda has done a good job with the insulation. I have no complaints about the layout of the controls although I could see getting distracted by the electronics. So far I’ve found the seats and driving position comfortable. Too bad that us Canadians don’t get offered the power seats although I’m glad we have the battery heater! The ACC with LSF has its quirks. I don’t just use cruise control on the highway and, as I believe other people have noted, the car brakes quite abruptly when the car in front makes a right turn. The software decides there is a car stopped in front of it and acts accordingly. I can’t really find fault with that since I’d rather these systems err on the side of caution. A little dab on the accelerator or changing to traditional cruise control will both work. I really like the way the car uses the regenerative braking system to maintain the set speed going downhill. I was a little puzzled by the fact that my fob wouldn’t activate the walk away auto lock. A read of the manual explained that only the fob that was used to set the auto lock feature to on will do it! What’s not to like with this car? It looks good. It accelerates well and handles well. Since we ordered the car having not even seen a Clarity and, I admit, felt a little nervous about that, we are really pleased that we bought it.
Sounds like you found a winner! With gas at those high prices and electricity at those low prices, it must be especially nice to run on electric!
I was just thinking on the way home from church this evening the same as you said, "you can just put it in drive and go." I'm so used to it now I easily forget it is in EV mode all the time around town. Just put it in drive and go, have super quiet operation, don't use any gas, have lots of power, and enjoy the comfortable ride. I too very much appreciate how the car holds the speed going downhill in cruise control mode. I also really like the Break Hold feature and greatly miss that when I have to drive our 4Runner.
I agree and think it’s the best of both worlds; a BEV in town and a hybrid for unlimited range long trips with just a minute or two fueling every 280 miles. And I wave as I go by the Leafs and Tesla’s waiting for their charge to complete. Until battery tech improves to an affordable 300-400 m, 30 min charge to 80% AND there are enough fast DC charging stations in enough places for a reasonable price, nothing beats the Clarity. It’s the perfect bridge until we can go all in on BEVs.
That was why I cancelled my 2 year model 3 rsvp to get the clarity.. I didn't want to be put in a position where I have to charge when travelling with 3 young kids.
These two quotes totally capture the Clarity experience...it is a "no brainer" driving around town on EV only - all you've got to do is plug it in at night (as long as you have an L2 charger - then you can even do morning chores, charge, and evening out for 100 miles EV in a day) - ALL with no range anxiety when grandma and grandpa go to visit the younglings. I think Ken's got the tipping point for BEV pegged. I want to be able to hit four hours freeway speed driving - 300 real miles - with 30 minute lunch break charging. HOWEVER, than means actual range of 375 miles so I can still do 300 miles after the recharge, and I'm afraid that is in the distant future...
