OK...so I'm driving through the town where I live. 3-lanes on each side of the road. I going about 50 mph. Clarity is in EV mode. Not much else going on. Then it "dings" and says "Low Fuel". ICE hadn't been on since I started the car a couple of miles previously. All EV. Fuel mileage for the current drive reads 199.9. How does this happen running in EV mode? Just plain weird to me!!
Possible dumb question, but were you on a hill when it dinged? Perhaps the location of the sensor makes it susceptible to changes in reading based on incline.
Pure speculation, but maybe it's triggered by combined range remaining and not just HV miles remaining. Were you actually low on fuel?
Was the light on when you started, or did it only come on when the chime sounded? I have a 2007 Civic currently, and I'm pretty sure the chime at least is intentionally delayed for a few minutes after starting the car, probably to avoid it being lost in the pile of lights and sounds that happen on startup.
Wasn't on before it dinged. I was looking at the instrument panel to see how many miles of EV I had left when it occurred. "ding" and message at the same time.
I'm not at all surprised. My prius could do the same - fuel gauge drops bars or warning comes on when engine is not running. It's not at all about fuel flow - it is just when the sloshing on the gas gets below the trigger threshold of the sensor long enough to not be averaged out.
If you only had 45 miles of fuel left that was probably the answer. On my trip across the US, I found that the low fuel light would come on at 35-45 mile HV estimate. I don't find it amazing that it would come on when in EV. After all, it cannot predict when you will turn on one of the other modes. It is just warning you that if you do, you don't have much gas.