I'm new here -- my 7,000 mile review, including 4,200 mile road trip

I guess you're correct, if the car tries to keep a minimum battery reserve. Thanks for a nice travel journal!

 

It may ultimately require the same amount of energy to make a trip with a full battery vs a depleted battery, but giving the Clarity some battery power to play with while you drive in HV Mode certainly makes for a more pleasant driving experience. Also, it's good to have some battery power in reserve to climb hills or pass slower cars.

 

Ditto; I'd read early on you need to be in sport mode to get the quicker re-acceleration. But I found normal Drive mode worked as well.

 

You are correct that the Clarity will not allow the battery to be completely discharged because that causes a Li-Ion battery to die. The lowest number of bars reported on this forum is one and I believe only one forum member has managed to deplete the battery that much. There is also a buffer at the top end that prevents overcharging. Many on this forum report that a full charge is 14.4 kWh, not the nominal 17 kWh capacity of the battery.

The engine alone generates up to 103 horsepower. There must be system losses as the engine turns the starter motor/generator to power the traction motor, so fewer than 103 horsepower actually make it to the road.

When the engine is not running, the traction motor can deliver up to 121 horsepower. The traction motor can produce as much as 181 horsepower when receiving power from both the engine/starter motor/generator and the battery. Although Honda says the Clarity can produce 212 horsepower, only 181 horses are available when you really get on it.

I have personally never heard the "angry bees" in 11 months of Clarity driving, but there are no big hills to climb in south-east Michigan so the engine has never been pushed very hard. I do believe the engine is louder when it is powering the car without assistance from the battery. I'm sure this increased volume is due to higher revs.

When battery power is available, the Clarity in HV mode can select from three different underlying modes of propulsion: EV drive mode, Hybrid drive mode, and Engine drive mode. The car selects whichever one of these modes offers the greatest efficiency at a given moment. It is often a mystery how the Clarity chooses between these 3 drive modes, but I find it satisfying to know the car is utilizing all of its resources and technologies to get me to my destination in the most efficient manner it can provide.

For the above reasons, I feel the driving experience is better when the battery is not depleted.

 

When I go on a long road trip I plan to take a small gas can just to be safe. Hopefully it will fit safely in the Cable storage box in the trunk. Any recommendations?

 

I don't think you would need it. Pretty sure that even at the low 190 Miles for 7 gallons, you will find a gas station well before you empty the tank.

BTW, we drove from LA to Las Vegas (290 miles) on 6 gallons of gas starting with a full battery and ending with 3/4 battery.
All in HV mode around 65-70 MPH and averaging 48 MPG.

 

About 98 percent of the time I agree with you. But I remember driving across Texas and there was about a 300 to 400 mile stretch with no gas stations. The speed limit is also 80mph.

 

I really think that with the small tank, weight, and bulkiness of the vehicle, that by going 80 MPH you are probably wasting time having to stop for gas so often over just doing about 70 and stopping less often. I drive across I-20 and I-10 in TX where it's 80 about once a year in a Kia and the gas mileage would drop from about 34 down to 26 doing 85. I also noticed that all the locals (mainly pickups) would never be going to speed limit.

But that's logic. When you're on that road, especially west of Pecos, it gets really boring and you just want to get it over with and get to El Paso.

 

I think you're exaggerating the distance. That seems too far in this day and age. Some cars cannot go over 300 miles per tank. There won't be any motorcycles on that road.

 

Yeah my old Accord got ~320 to a full tank (12gal?) 400 miles without a gas station seems unlikely.

 

Where did you come up with only 190 miles on a full 7 gallons of gas? We recently finished a nearly 4,000 mile road trip (using HV mode almost exclusively) and usually went 230+ miles on around 5-5.5 gallons. You would have to be driving continuously up an 8% grade for three hours to do that bad.

 

Personally, it just makes sense to stop, stretch and pee that frequently anyway!

-Skip


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I didn't, this was the worst mileage that OP had posted on his 7000 mile review. I was using that to answer neal adkins question about having a spare gas can in the car.

Yes, it is not a common occurrence and happened only once to the OP. Basically, a worst case scenario.