The result was upside down from what I would have thought!!!

That's a good question. There was a lot of argument, for some years, over just how much extra capacity the Volt has beyond its usable capacity. Even now, not everyone agrees. Unfortunately, most EV makers keep the exact amount of full capacity vs. usable capacity as proprietary information, and don't tell us lowly mortals.

The Clarity PHEV hasn't been around long enough for us to know if it, like the Volt, has a battery pack engineered to show no sign of losing any capacity for years and years. Some say the generation 1 Volt was over-engineered, so that may be setting the bar too high; that may be a record for extra capacity that nobody else is aiming to match. The generation 2 Volt may not have as much extra capacity -- it may be engineered to use more of its full capacity from the start -- so it may start measurably losing capacity sooner.

Sorry I couldn't give a more definitive answer to your question. From all I've read and seen, I think the Clarity PHEV is a well-engineered PHEV, altho it does have some odd quirks. If I was to guess, I'd guess it probably doesn't have as much extra capacity as a generation 1 Volt. But I only say that because it looks like GM deliberately reduced the quality of the generation 2 Volt, which again indicates the gen-1 Volt was over-engineered, and therefore was probably more expensive to build than GM likes.

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I was playing with some numbers last night since I own a Clarity and noticed reduced range as it got colder up here in Boston. Our electric rates are ~0.23 per kWh and gas is around. $2.65. With the reduced winter range I think running the ICE on my morning commute (no traffic) and using EV on my evening commute (all stop and go) is probably the most efficient. LOVE having options in a PHEV.



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