Has anyone else noticed the dark gray wheel covers are facing the wrong direction on the passenger side wheels. I suppose Honda didn’t want to have different rims on each side of the car, but I’m not sure I see the point if they’re only facing the right direction to deflect air on the driver’s side of the car. I had to check the stock images of the Clarity PHEV just to make sure the dealer didn’t install someone else’s driver side covers on my passenger side, lol.
Interesting, but not entirely surprising. I once owned a '91 Honda CRX Si and it actually had opposite alloy wheels for left side and right side.
Well, so much for Honda’s attention to aerodynamic detail! Either they calculated that it doesn’t make a difference or they were just cheap or an engineer wasn’t paying attention. No way to know. Just don’t tell your friends with a Volt.
More likely the engineer had it right and a bean counter said, "hey, look, we can save X dollars if we use all the same wheels." Etc.
Ah, bean counters and lawyers, the bane of good corporate decision making. I should have thought of that.
I just looked at mine, I never noticed that before. It does mean they likely serve no aero purpose as that sharp edge would definetly not help. Wonder if it was a late change. They must have just wanted different looking wheels.
Many of the new Honda wheels are like this, such as on the Accord. They would have had to test it in the lab, but mainly the wheel should appear solid if it's rotating fast enough. The older Civic hybrid used mostly solid style wheels, but those are heavy compared to newer designs. http://www.nadaguides.com/Cars/2006/Honda/Civic-Hybrid
I notice the 2014 Accord plugin had an aero cover much like Tesla Model 3. It uses very thin spokes to reduce weight I imagine, which probably leads to bad aero drag so they cover it. Maybe you're right that the Clarity doesn't need them as much as the wheel is more filled in.
Our gen 3 Prius has (had) plastic wheel covers over reasonably nice looking silver painted aluminum wheels. Their clear function was to block the air from the spokes of the wheel (while at the same time making everything look clunky and cheap). https://goo.gl/images/SLG3S4 Effectively, I believe the Clarity's covers also block the air flow through the wheels but (in my opinion) are quite attractive.
