Has anyone else experienced this. I went to use the paddles yesterday evening and could only get 1 chevron. No matter how many times I engaged the paddle it stayed on one chevron. And, I did not feel and deceleration. As a matter of coincidence, my car was scheduled for a climate control issue this morning. When I brought it in and spoke with the service advisor this morning he acted like I was crazy and said the paddles only work when you are manually shifting. I told him I have been driving this car since May. It is a Clarity and you should be able to use the paddles to decelerate and accelerate, and using the paddle on the right with the + has three different levels that act to capture the energy in deceleration in slowing the vehicle. I got a call about an hour ago telling me that the service supervisor drove it and would talk to me about it when I come to pick up the car. I am not liking the sound of that. Has anyone else experienced a problem with the paddles? Nancy
You use the *left* paddle to increase regeneration, not the right. You *cannot* use either paddle to accelerate.
A single chevron represents the Clarity's default regen. That's what you see if you pull the right paddle without previously using the left paddle, or after you pull and hold the right paddle for a few seconds. Some Honda user-interface designer decided that both zero and one chevrons should mean the same thing. When the Clarity doesn't want to accept the number of chevrons you're requesting, it will blink the "excess chevrons" before making them disappear. Sometimes this happens at high speeds or if the battery is fully charged, but it sometimes happens without any reason I can understand. Then, a few minutes later, I can get 4 chevrons without any argument.
Think of the regen paddles the same as the shift paddles in a regular car. Use the left (-) like you would to downshift to slow the car down. Use the right paddle to "shift to a higher gear (+). That's essentially what the effect is.
It sounds like he may not know Clarity. The comment is similar to my dealer's comment, but limiting it to the Sport mode (he admitted not knowing much about the Clarity LOL) As was already mentioned, the paddles does not let you accelerate. The Right (+) Paddle lessens the regenerative force which has the same effect of lightening the force you put on your foot break. And it's the Left (-) paddle that does the deceleration.
Based on what you wrote, you're pulling on the wrong paddle to slow the car. As has already been stated by several others, I'll confirm the LEFT paddle decelerates, not the right. And neither will cause it to accelerate. And the confusion compounded when you talked to a service advisor who has never driven or been trained on a Clarity...and therefore incorrect in what the paddles do on this car. So to be perfectly blunt, you were wrong in diagnosing and/or explaining a problem that might not exist, plus service advisor was wrong with his reply about how the car works. Gonna be a tad challenging for 2 wrong people to find a resolution LOL! But during your pending meeting of the minds...hopefully the service advisor did a little research on the system and can now teach/explain better when you talk and/or test-drive...and hopefully you try testing the car utilizing the left paddle, instead of the right. Methinks it'll all come together in an "aha" moment for both of you... Report back with the final outcome!
To add to using the left paddle and not working while fully charged, regen won't work with a very cold battery (or will be reduced significantly).
