I was thinking if my PHEV battery ever died if its possible a replacement battery might have more EV range than the original. I realize wishful thinking but curious what folks thoughts are on that. My car is fine, and I'm not needing a battery, just sort of hypothetical thoughts for a future time when some replacement could be necessary. -Dan
The PHEV weighs 2 tons to start with. You might have to find tires with a greater weight rating if you conceded your trunk space to the BEV's extra battery chunk! Of course, because Honda offered the Clarity Electric only via a lease agreement, there are no parts recyclers waiting to sell you the 89-mile battery from a Clarity Electric.
Best bet would be to wait and see if some elusive new battery technology becomes available. Right now we have an 8-10 year warranty on the battery. Honda isn’t going to install anything other than the OEM battery as a replacement under warranty. In all likelihood it would prove cost prohibitive to modify the PHEV to accommodate the BEV battery, if that is a consideration. The demise of the PHEV may have been greatly exaggerated. There are a number of new models that are available now or will be in the near future. Also, PHEV’s will be allowed to comprise up to 20% of new car sales once California’s no new ICE vehicles policy takes effect. This is good news for anyone who sees the PHEV as the enlightened path toward a lower emission future. A PHEV, however, is likely to have a limited EV range of less than 50 miles, as that distance covers about 99% of the daily driving for 99% of drivers. It just doesn’t make sense for a manufacturer to add more capacity that isn’t likely to be used.
The OEM tires have a maximum load capacity of 1477lbs each. That totals up to just over 5900lbs, which is about 900lbs more that the GVWR for the car. Something else may be the weak leak if GVWR were to be exceeded.
Just wanted to return to this thread to say thank you for the thoughtful replies. I really like my Clarity and hope to keep it running as long as I can. It's still pretty new and has been problem free for me (touch wood). Anyway, it would be ideal if new battery technology (lighter, better efficiency, safer) comes along.
I always thought it would be interesting to find a totaled Clarity BEV and attach the extra battery stack in the trunk. Would never happen, but interesting. I never thought about the weight issue of massive battery + ICE.
