If my theory posted earlier today holds up, you might see this kind of HV range if you have used almost exclusively EV mode for most of your driving. I'm curious -- is that the case?
So this should be easy to test. The next time I take a long road trip with a much higher HV-EV ratio of usage, the full-tank range should register much lower again. I don't have any road trips planned soon, but I'll keep an eye on this and post again when I do.
Absolutely. If I had to guess, I'd say 95% of our driving is on electric. That type of driving, which probably isn't unusual, should emphasize why Honda was really remiss in producing an algorithm of this type.
Agreed. Ken, if you do any road trips using mostly gas in the near future, I'd love to hear what your next fill-up looks like.
This is just a SWAG here, but maybe Honda did nothing at all with the EV/HV range software and it's just doing its own thing...... you know, a 1201 program alarm... (Sarcasm alert for those who tend to be literal...)
Will do, Dave. I have no doubt the HV range would drop. This was the highest HV range we’ve seen (1,000 miles) and it was probably a very high (95%?) electric usage. I could see many owners, not familiar with this issue, running into problems with this inflated range.
Honda could fix this very simply, calculate average mpg while engine is running, discounting electric use, then multiply that * the gallons in the gas tank, and add on the estimated electric range. This is an oversimplification of course, there is history to consider, etc. Instead, they appear to be using the average mpg combining gas and electric and multiplying that times gallons. There is a definite bug in their calculation, I wish we could report it directly to the engineers. My wife was going to complain about it to the dealer, hopefully with enough complaints to the dealers and they will do something, as long as those complaints get passed on. Unfortunately, they might not, dealers will probably just say it is normal.
Totally agree. That's why I said they could simply use the EPA gas estimate and they'd be in the ballpark. In fact I'd bet our actual individual mpg will be very close the EPA estimate anyway. Even with a fixed EPA estimate as the underlying formula, who would be upset if it were off by a few miles? Probably nobody. Unfortunately, as easy as this would be to fix, I'm doubtful this ever will get fixed.
I don't know if this has been reported but I found this in the user manual. Page 121 under the heading Range Shows the estimated distance you can travel on the remaining power and fuel. This estimate is based on the fuel economy and energy consumption of your previous trips and the remaining high voltage battery charge level. It's what we've suspected. My fuel economy must be astronomic. The last day we filled the gas tank was December 20th and the ICE has only started a few brief times. We've used perhaps 1 or 2 gallons. Current Odometer reading is 2,749 and it has been 1,470 since we last filled the tank.
Hey really need to fix the whole energy consumption system in the car. It disregarding all electrical usage makes it worthless. I found this, but there have been no updates and over a year ago creating new accounts was frozen: http://www.mycarma.com/products/myev/ myEV by FleetCarma https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myev/id931586813?mt=8 Looked like a great concept, I wish they could have gotten it off the ground.
Here is hopefully another piece to this frustrating range puzzle. I drove off my new Clarity from the dealer’s lot with a full tank of gas and 15 EV 366 HV (/7=52 HV mpg?)and 51 on the odometer. After 1 week, I have driven 125 more miles in EV only w ICE never once coming on. Temps 45 to 60. Ac/heat/defrost/headlights used little to moderate. Easy accel/braking in eco mode. 90/10 town/hwy. Results: 1. HV staying constant at 366. 2. EV of 48 to 49 after charger shuts down (Aerovironment Level 2 free public charger). 3. EV range consistently going down mile for mile as odometer goes down. 4. High voltage battery charge graphical gauge going up/down as expected. Note that at its midpoint, EV is around 21/22 (slightly less than 1/2 of 48 m full range showed numerically). This makes sense since manual seems to say it will leave 1 bar (reserve to protect battery?). Also makes sense since meter is analogous to gas gauge in that it does NOT show range (which varies w efficiency (mpg)) but rather shows level/amount of energy. In this case electrons not gasoline. So all looks to be functioning OK except for slightly high HV (well at least it’s not as bad as some reported) but that could be due to the very limited 51 mile history. I will post more if I ever take a trip long enough to power up the ICE. Be interesting to see what that does to HV range since EV only driving is not affecting it at all. Thanks to all for sharing their data-experiences so we can figure out what’s going on in this black hole of Calcutta that Honda has dropped us in.
Once Ken fills up his gas tank, he’ll experience what we all have, a hugely inflated HV range. It’s inevitable.
How hard can this be? 1 - If there is a flow sensor in the gas line or fuel pump, the car can easily compute MPG using the odometer data, when the ICE is on. It also knows its remaining fuel from the tank gauge. Then remaining miles is a simple computation for the car computer. My 8 year old Infinity could do that. There may be a bug in the software whereby they try to do this MPG calculation when the ICE is off or mostly off. 2 - If there is no flow sensor, then calculate Approx. remaining miles using a default 40 MPG and the tank remaining data. That's more accurate than what they are doing now. There may be a bug in the software whereby they use a default MPG number much higher than 40 based on the test of this drivetrain in the Malaysian version of the car. I hope that someone techie at Honda notices this either from the case already filed by someone or from reading this blog. I think this should be considered BUG ONE.
Well, unless a lot of people report/complain to Honda, they probably won't even know about this issue. I talked to a couple of owners and asked them if they have reported the bad HV range and they said it's a minor issue and no point in reporting
Why would it even take a 'techie'? All you need is ANYONE from Honda, owning the car or driving the car, to see the crazy inflated HV range. A genius it doesn't take.
Gee, Ken7, now you got me feeling like my HV range and I are on death row just waiting for everyone at the pump to yell “dead man walking” when I pull up to my first fill up. Sigh. Does anyone at Honda even do a rudimentary test before they say it’s ready to distribute to the dealers??
No one will yell. We've all already been there. LOL - Just be simply AMAZED at the incredible HV range you have after your next fill up…