I wish the Clarity was more Voltish

The Clarity won't use the ICE any more than the Volt if you don't stomp on the pedal. Both of them will occasionally force it on for systems checks. The Volt is cramped and has uncomfortable seats. I have a back/butt support cushion for my CR-V, and whenever I'm in my parents' Volt, I have to bring it with me. Not so for the Clarity.

I'd much rather get oil changes more often than be uncomfortable every single time I need to use the car to get somewhere.

 

Good observations, but I suspect there are posts in the Volt forums with observations like “I wish the Volt was more Clarityish.” Both shine in some aspects, but have quirks in others. Just like every other vehicle on the road.

https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/how-to-improve-the-clarity.3903/

 

When you say you want the Clarity to be better designed in the EV department, I can agree with you if you’re meaning have it give us more information and user configurable choices. But if you mean engineering changes as to how the EV vs HV interacts, then I’d have to respectfully disagree.

I like the way it’s designed to have seamless friction vs regen braking and added regen (even though it’s not enough for 1 pedal driving). I find EV only (even though it’s not “100% pure” EV) power to be plenty powerful enough without going past the detent/click 99.99 of the time.

And the ICE hardly ever turns on for me. For example, I’ve gone 6,000+ miles since filling up in July and I haven’t lost a bar on the gas gauge. That’s an insignificant amount of gasoline used while driving in Econ “EV”. I don’t begrudge this minuscule amount of gas consumption since it’s keeping the engine healthy and ready to instantly come on if and when I need it. If anyone is adamant about absolutely avoiding any dino burning, then a PHEV is not the car for them. Personally, I don’t see a very meaningful difference between a BEV and my PHEV that went one year and 8,000+ miles on 13 gal of gas and 1 oil change.
We’re both helping the environment and our wallets. And since I’m charging from home solar PV, I can argue my carbon footprint is just as small, if not smaller.

While the Clarity may occasionally run its engine, I wouldn’t want any changes since I can drive in near 100% EV in my local driving and have no range anxiety on long trips. And best of all, the car does it all automatically as long as I charge up before my trip. So since I’ve never experienced the angry bees or loss of power (even on steep hills) I wouldn’t want anything changed. Although more information, more customizable settings, and a few minor items like heated steering wheel and surround cameras etc. would be nice, I can live without them to get everything else the Clarity offers.

 

Is anyone else getting tired of the same topics being rehashed and debated over and over again in this forum?

 

The detent makes sense to me, but I've only test driven a Volt, so I don't have much experience with it. The logic of the detent in my mind is that it is very easy to stay in EV (at least for me) when in Econ mode, but if you really need the added power in an emergency situation, it is where you would expect it to be ... at the end of the gas pedal.

 

I like the detent design. It has saved my butt a couple of times. I find it very easy to drive full EV but when I've needed extra power it was there without pushing any buttons.

 

It would have required a different battery pack design that would highly likely reduced electric range. This design was to increase range efficiency, not total EV power output. It cannot provide full electric power to the maximum rating of the EV drive motor. It only provides about 2/3 of the electric power the drive motor can take. Mainly because the majority of the time people drive at cruising speeds that don't need full power. In fact it uses very little power relative to the max output of most drive trains.

If they had reconfigured the battery for full ev motor output, I wouldn't be surprised if the range dropped to 35 miles or less, since the battery current output would need to be about 50% greater.

 

Based on the new models it's about 500 lbs difference.

It's not as simple as that. It requires both space and weight rating. The Clarity is vehicle in the 4000 lb+ class, gross vehicle weight rating is about under 5000 lbs. The Volt doesn't carry as much passenger and cargo capacity, so it's GVWR will be less. That affects suspension, crash test performance, which can further increase weight for crash test performance (adding more weight means adding additional structural weight to support the additional component weight).

 

I'm almost certain Honda looked at the Volt while they were developing the Clarity PHEV. If Honda wanted to provide a NO ICE mode, they could have done it. It wasn't something they forgot to include. Honda was focusing on overall efficiency rather than trying to out-Volt the Volt.

The Clarity PHEV's HV Mode is a thing of beauty as it selects the most efficient way to get the car down the road. That requires using the ICE, which makes sense for people traveling further than the Clarity's EV range. As noted above, you don't have to work very hard to keep the Clarity PHEV in EV Drive mode. Just restrain the angle of your right ankle. I drove 10 months on Honda's gas before finally visiting a gas station on my first multi-state voyage.

 

I also own a Volt and a Clarity. Both are great cars. I wish the Clarity had more information available similar to the Volt. Would I have designed the Clarity more like the Volt as far as operation/regen/etc? I don't think so. They are just different, and both designs work for what they are. It is true that the Clarity will burn a little more gas than the Volt due to the design, but it's just not enough to get aggravated over (for me at least). The Volt I own (2012 generation 1) can have a loud ICE (angry bees) as well after depletion of the battery. That's why GM put the mountain mode in the car. It generally is a louder ICE than my Honda.

 

I like the idea that the engine will come on when you really need it. Unless you have a Tesla acceleration at high speeds is not great all EV. When I need to move fast on the highway I am glad the ICE comes on to help without me having to do something. Rarely does the engine come on when driving around town even when I drive in Sport mode which I think makes the car even more fun to drive.