I went on my first long-distance road trip (from Palos Verdes to Palm Desert) and while we made it there and back without incident, I wasn't thrilled with the car's performance. I started with a fully charged battery. I was hoping to make it to the halfway point (about an hour and a half drive to Riverside) and recharge while we stopped for a lunch break. But the freeway drive went through the charge much quicker than my normal commute to work, probably because we were on the freeway for a longer duration. I immediately noticed the change in noise and engine power when it switched over, even though my passenger didn't necessarily notice a difference. I'm more sensitive to changes in noise and handling, especially since I normally drive on a mostly full charge. Aside from that first full charge, we wound up driving the rest of the way on the internal combustion engine. I was worried about some of the steeper inclines, but it turned out to be more winding curves than steep inclines, so generally the car handled okay and didn't rev abnormally high. Once at the hotel, two of the chargers were down and the others were taken. I was able to charge at a local spot the next day. But noticed that the electric range was significantly lower than normal. Instead of getting 67 miles when fully charged, the car now only gets 57 at most. About a 10 mile drop in EV range. On the return trip, the same experience pretty much. Barely made it to Cabazon Outlet mall and was driving on internal combustion engine the rest of the drive home because the places we stopped had no available chargers. Now it's been a few days back home and still experience the reduced EV range after full charge. Has anyone else experienced this sudden drop in EV range after the first long-distance trip? Overall reaction: very disappointed in the Clarity's performance.
I'm new to the Clarity, we just leased one a few weeks ago so I'm still getting used to it. But reading what you reported above, it seems like yours is performing exactly as it should. 57 miles EV driving on a charge is better than average IMO.
The EV range of 67 miles you normally experience is fantastic and 57 is still 10 more than the EPA estimate. Clearly, you are a careful driver on your daily commute because the EV range the Clarity displays is based on your previous drives. When you pushed your EV range to the limit on your expressway charge to Palm Desert, the EV range calculator decided you'd sold your Clarity to someone who didn't have the skill of its previous owner, so it adjusted its estimate to reflect that previous drive. For longer drives, you might want to take advantage of the Clarity's ICE by selecting HV mode for the expressway parts of your drive. When there's plenty of battery power available, the ICE stays pretty quiet most of the time. Then you'll have plenty of EV power for the in-town parts of your journey and you won't have the same urgency to find an available charging station.
As insightman said, don't be disappointed by the so-called "drop" in EV range. It reflects no change in the actual car. Only that if you drive in an energy-consuming manner (as all highway driving is, because of wind drag) the car will decide that--if that is the kind of driving you are doing--you won't be able to drive quite as far on a full battery. After a few days it will "realize" that your driving is back to less-energy-consuming, and the mileage will go back up. As for the poor performance: the (near-) universal consensus here is that the car won't drive well on its small engine alone. Needs some battery power to surge up hills, accelerate, etc. The Clarity can't know if the current planned drive is beyond its battery range, so just burns the battery (mostly) until only the engine is available (mostly). Therefore, your job as the driver is to anticipate that the current drive is beyond the range of the battery, and to--at some point, ideally during the highway portion when the engine will work efficiently and the noise masked by wind noise--switch to HV mode to conserve the battery. Switch back out when you near your destination. A few people really don't like leaving any charge in the battery at all, and run it down to empty and put up with the poor performance afterwards, but most of us like the ride to be quiet and have more power.
I’m surprised you’re disappointed in the performance! For 2 reasons. First, I think it would be more fair to say you’re disappointed in the charging infrastructure, which failed you numerous times with inoperative or in-use chargers. Attempting (or planning) to drive a PHEV on a long distance road trip using only electricity requires a functional charging infrastructure and you did not have that. Second, I’m sure you know that highway travel using only electricity pulls a lot of juice out of the battery and is not the best way to operate this PHEV. It will definitely affect the average EV-only range for some time and, as well, running the main battery down to 0 on a trip can definitely lead to performance changes. So, I also don’t think it’s fair to be disappointed in your Clarity, given what you attempted to do. I’ll bet if you had operated it like everyone on here recommends, using HV mode on the highway with some charge in the main battery all the time (and not relying on a sketchy charging infrastructure), you would have had a stellar trip!
It occurs to me . . . it would be nice if Honda would provide this recommendation, or at least the knowledge, in the Owner's Manual or somewhere. It seems that every new Clarity owner experiences the difference between the feel of the car when there's charge in the battery versus the performance with zero charge. Methinks that it's a marketing decision not to include this; it would sound negative to potential buyers.
There are, we think, two ways the EV Range fluctuates after a full charge. 1) The car uses your last drive to estimate future range. If you were climbing hills just before you recharge the estimate is going to be low. 2) Ambient temperature has a large effect on Li Ion batteries no matter what car. Most of us were getting EV range of 48-52 miles or even much better during the warm months. Most of us are now seeing 30-40 miles of range in the winter. The EV mode of the Clarity is certainly capable of propelling the car up to 100 mph but the efficiency drops off as speed increases. As long as gas prices are low it may be cheaper, and certainly less hassle, to gas up on long trips. Keep the battery charge about 1/3 to 1/2 which will help prevent the gas engine from revving high.
Sometimes experience is the best teacher. Even if it's a bad one. He will probably use hv mode more at highway speeds now when on longer trips. Lets say his ice is getting broke in efficienctly. Haha
Agreed, some people learn best by experience (and some people ONLY by experience). But I'd like the option of at least having the knowledge of other people's experience, which is exactly what we are getting here on the forum. Most Clarity owners won't avail themselves of that option.
Speed reduces range a lot, although the Clarity is extremely aerodynamic. Someone has a chart floating around with speed vs range, but at 75 mph you will probably get about 30 miles on electric in fair weather. Gas engine noise takes getting used to after spoiled by electric. Performance wise the Clarity does well cruising at whatever speed you want up to its top speed (100 mph or so). It won't win races with an Accord V6 or something but does just fine and handles well (not really a curvey road sort of car, but great interstate cruiser). Your best bet is switch to HV mode at about half charge and just drive. Restart HV after you fuel up.
