3rd Day Owning my Clarity Touring....

[2002]

I am always surprised at how much difference even an almost-not-observable grade makes. One way to measure this is when moving my airplane ... there is an almost imperceptible grade between the hangar and the gas pump, but it makes a huge difference in how much effort it takes to go versus come.

Not everyone may realize that you are referring to pushing your airplane yourself unpowered. Believe it or not some people have never been to a general aviation airport.

Then again most people have pushed a car or two in their day

 

[MNSteve]

Then again most people have pushed a car or two in their day

But maybe not far enough to observe the effect of a tiny grade. <Mental image of people push a car to the top of a hill and not realizing they will soon be chasing it>

 

[NocEdit]

drive in sport mode to make the car feel much quicker- unless you really floor it you won't turn on the ICE and EV milage is not noticeably reduced.

I didn't know sport mode helped helped the driving of the car on only EV. I thought it just kicked the engine on more often and let you lock the region at level 3. I really haven't experimented with sport mode yet... I live at the base of some steep hills... so I turned it on going up hill once and noticed the engine kick on. I'm driving to San Diego from Los Angeles this weekend.. so i'll definitely give it a try on the freeway, cause I'm going to have to use the engine anyway. Been playing the game of trying to not use any gas in my daily 26 mile commute. And I'm almost up to 200 miles and no gas used this week of commuting.

 

[NocEdit]

However, SPORT Mode might have an impact on your HV range if you don't restrain your ankle and the Power/Charge Gauge strays out of the blue zone, causing the ICE to fire up for 10-20 minutes or whatever it feels like.

It's too bad you can't optionally have the accelerator pedal's click point adjust to work in SPORT and NORMAL Modes the way it does in ECON Mode. I say optionally because SPORT Mode aficionados might not like to feel the click when they're questing for maximum power.

If you trip the engine on in sport mode... flooring the car... do you really have to wait until the car decides to turn off the ICE? Or can you push the ECON mode button and the ICE turns off sooner?

 

[fotomoto]

I didn't know sport mode helped helped the driving of the car on only EV. I thought it just kicked the engine on more often

The power meter on the drivers instrument display in EV mode is blue and continues around the dial to approx. the 2 o'clock position where it turns to the gray HV zone and the engine kicks on.

Sport mode makes the accelerator pedal more sensitive. So for example (figures made up for illustration only and "Normal" means neither ECO or SPORT buttons activated):

Pushing pedal halfway in "Normal" gives you 50% power/acceleration.
Pushing pedal halfway in ECO gives you 25% power/acceleration.
Pushing pedal halfway in SPORT gives you 75% power/acceleration.
Pushing pedal to the floor in any mode always gives you 100% power and both ev motor and gas engine always run.

So you can see that Sport makes the car feel more lively while ECO makes it more sluggish (good for economy).

On a level road in Normal while maintaining a set speed push SPORT and you should feel the car should surge.

o you really have to wait until the car decides to turn off the ICE? Or can you push the ECON mode button and the ICE turns off sooner?

Nope. The only workaround is to pull over, come to a complete stop, and turn car off/on. It's best to let the ICE warm up and burn off any moisture in the oil and exhaust system.

It didn't take long for my "butt-dyno" to adjust to the more sensitive nature of the Sport pedal plus glancing at the driver's power gauge to keep from activating the ICE (the dreaded gray zone).

YMMV

 

[insightman]

I didn't know sport mode helped helped the driving of the car on only EV. I thought it just kicked the engine on more often and let you lock the region at level 3. I really haven't experimented with sport mode yet... I live at the base of some steep hills... so I turned it on going up hill once and noticed the engine kick on. I'm driving to San Diego from Los Angeles this weekend.. so i'll definitely give it a try on the freeway, cause I'm going to have to use the engine anyway. Been playing the game of trying to not use any gas in my daily 26 mile commute. And I'm almost up to 200 miles and no gas used this week of commuting.

Using the battery only, the Clarity offers 121 hp of oomph. Activating the ICE, even in ECON Mode, potentially brings 60 extra horses onto the team. The combination of the ICE's 60 hp and SPORT Mode can provide noticeably quicker acceleration, but remember, SPORT Mode leads to smoking and drinking (which I often claim despite a complete lack of scientific evidence).

 

[2002]

Using the battery only, the Clarity offers 121 hp of oomph. Activating the ICE, even in ECON Mode, potentially brings 60 extra horses onto the team. The combination of the ICE's 60 hp and SPORT Mode can provide noticeably quicker acceleration, but remember, SPORT Mode leads to smoking and drinking (which I often claim despite a complete lack of scientific evidence).

Let's just say it hasn't been proven yet

I wonder what effect a cold engine has on horsepower. Presumably when cold the system limits the amount of power drawn from ICE for at least the first several seconds. So if for example you pulled onto a highway with a cold engine and floored it, your acceleration at at first would not be much more than EV alone I would think. Whereas if ICE had already warmed up when you got onto the highway you would have a lot more power. I suppose if you knew in advance that you might have a hard acceleration coming up, like on a daily commute route, you could activate HV a mile or two ahead. But usually you don't know and the need for power is usually instantaneous. I suspect a cold engine doesn't actually help that much but at least it makes a lot of noise and that at least makes you feel like you are going really fast. Then again even with just EV acceleration is very good, so the placebo effect of the noisy engine actually can be pretty convincing.

 

[insightman]

Let's just say it hasn't been proven yet

I wonder what effect a cold engine has on horsepower. Presumably when cold the system limits the amount of power drawn from ICE for at least the first several seconds. So if for example you pulled onto a highway with a cold engine and floored it, your acceleration at at first would not be much more than EV alone I would think. Whereas if ICE had already warmed up when you got onto the highway you would have a lot more power. I suppose if you knew in advance that you might have a hard acceleration coming up, like on a daily commute route, you could activate HV a mile or two ahead. But usually you don't know and the need for power is usually instantaneous. I suspect a cold engine doesn't actually help that much but at least it makes a lot of noise and that at least makes you feel like you are going really fast. Then again even with just EV acceleration is very good, so the placebo effect of the noisy engine actually can be pretty convincing.

That 0W-20 weight oil is pretty thin. Wouldn't that make the cold engine nearly as powerful as a warmed-up engine?

 

[neal adkins]

Interesting and expected. Though sport mode does persist regen settings and econ mode has other features to improve energy efficiency. All the driving modes have their uses.

But there is something more depressing than depressing the pedal. With roads choked up in traffic, pollution and CO2, and with a healthy percentage of people who drive like idiots- the name "sport mode" connotes nothing fun or sporty to me. Maybe they should simply call it "more depressing" mode.

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I found sport mode useful while driving in a very curvy mountain road. On curves that are obscured by trees etc. You have instant braking in sport mode as soon as you lift your foot off the pedal (when paddle is preset)and this helps for safer and smoother braking. I love the handling and braking of the clarity.

 

[NocEdit]

I found sport mode useful while driving in a very curvy mountain road. On curves that are obscured by trees etc. You have instant braking in sport mode as soon as you lift your foot off the pedal (when paddle is preset)and this helps for safer and smoother braking. I love the handling and braking of the clarity.

I need to take my clarity in some canyon roads in Los Angeles and try sport mode now!


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