All Electric Range?

[Dan Albrich]

YATASUWATER-- Yes. It happens a bunch, doesn't it? How many times have we had *this* conversation in the forums?

I used to be a PC helpdesk manager. You learn a lot about human nature doing more than 30 years of customer service, especially if you endeavor to do it well. If you are running a business, and basically everyone who comes in the door has the same misunderstanding, you know what?, maybe your business needs to address that issue. You need to do the things that enable folks to be your customer, and for them to feel good about it.

For me personally (and I know many will disagree, and I don't care): It's irresponsible to say Clarity has 47 miles of EV range. I totally call BS on this! What a crock! If you're serious about being real with people, the EV range one receives varies greatly seasonally and most importantly by location. Yep, those folks in Florida may really see 70 EV miles. God love them. Guess what, not even one person in Oregon ever see's that. Insert places like Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, so on and so forth. Guess what? A huge percentage of the USA is between the 45-49th parallel and yep, vast numbers of us deal with harsh winters. The EV numbers I get are vastly different than those in the southern half of the USA.

So maybe we need a better way to indicate EV range? For example, with a gas car, one typically sees MPG highway vs. MPG city. I think the EV metric should be average EV range winter, and average EV range summer. I tell my friends and I mean it to my soul, the Clarity is a *30* mile EV car, because that's my reality-- and good on those of you who see better, but myself and my co-worker who also has a Clarity don't see the number Honda advertises as average. It's the number we see rarely under ideal conditions.

-Dan

PS: I do love the car. But I think these discussions are premised with the idea that we all have the same experience. I am here to tell you, no that's not the case. And yes, I've done the extreme methods to try and improve my range, and none of them matter all that much. Living up a hill, and using cabin heat are significant. I don't have any commute with any freeway, and I drive 20-40 mph all the time, and I just can't get more EV range. I drive in economy mode, and and am soft on the peddle. I limit use of the heater and fan. There's only so much one can do.

 

[The Gadgeteer]

The Clarity’s 47 EV range value comes from the EPA. Car manufacturers can only use the EPA determined value in the USA. The values do provide a consistent basis of comparison between cars but as we all know your individual EV mileage will vary (greatly).

PS I would say I generally do better than 47 EV miles in warm weather city driving and worse than 47 in cold/highway driving but 47 does seem to be a close enough average for what I observe given it is “government work” after all.

 

[Landshark]

The minutia of how the EV range is determined was explained earlier.

It may seem to be a bizarre methodology, but it is, at least, some sort of standard.

Today I drove 46 miles in EV, mostly at 60ish, in temps between 47-57F, up and over a moderate 2 mile hill twice and had 3 miles remaining.

Thanksgiving week was quite cold in So Oregon, 20’s-40’s, and I got 40 or more miles per charge. I live at 2000’ and the valley floor is 1300’. Very little range is lost going in to town, much more is lost returning home. We have several months in the summer where temps are between mid-50’ to 90’s. Similar to So Cal temps. I’ve been driving in CA a bit and expect to see upper 40’s to mid-50’s during summer in Oregon.

I believe the 47 mile claim is accurate, for temps above 60, on relatively flat terrain and a combination of city and freeway driving. Anyone driving a Lithium powered vehicle should know, or be made aware, that cold temps, hilly terrain or continuous high speeds will have a negative impact on the stated range.

 

[Ran]

Thank you all for your replies. I live in California and my car is in the garage when I charge the car. It is not that cold here. Temp range from 43 - 60F
I am basically asking when you fully charge your car what does your car EV range reads or Honda link apps indicates when it stop charging?
Thanks again.

 

[DucRider]

Thank you all for your replies. I live in California and my car is in the garage when I charge the car. It is not that cold here. Temp range from 43 - 60F
I am basically asking when you fully charge your car what does your car EV range reads or Honda link apps indicates when it stop charging?
Thanks again.

That will vary based on recent driving habits, temperatures, current temperatures, etc.
The temperature range of 43 degrees to 60 will result in a big variance. What someone else gets if they drove gently at an average speed of 30 mph at 60 degrees will be vastly different than that same person driving at 75 in 43 degree temps with the cabin heat cranked.

I don't have the PHEV version, but the Guess-o-meter on my Electric will vary between about 60 and 110 miles. It's happiest at around 70 to 80 degrees and then it is relative easy to get an actual 100+ miles in mixed driving (EPA rating is 89). 40 degrees, rain, defroster, and 65 mph freeway driving will make 60 miles a bit of a stretch. And I also live in Oregon. We see about a 20-25% drop with overnight temps into the 30's (but the Electric version does have the benefit of a heat pump). Same batteries, just 50% more of them than the PHEV sports. The Electric is a little more efficient (126 MPGe vs 110) without having the ICE and associated components to haul around (even with the extra batteries).

 

[JCA]

Thank you all for your replies. I live in California and my car is in the garage when I charge the car. It is not that cold here. Temp range from 43 - 60F
I am basically asking when you fully charge your car what does your car EV range reads or Honda link apps indicates when it stop charging?
Thanks again.

I'm in California also with similar temperature range. My EV estimated range after a full charge depends a lot on the weather and my recent driving. After commuting to work (2/3 free flow 75+ MPH highway, 1/3 local), in the summer it was around 44; in the winter ~38. After a weekend tooling around more locally, I saw low 50s a few times in the summer, in the winter similar driving gives ~42-44.

The ideal temperature for battery capacity seems to be 70s+; 40s/50s/60s seem to reduce the battery capacity noticeably even if I don't use the heat or defroster (which I of course expect to significantly impact range). Just enjoy the car, and in a couple months on a warmer day go for a nice 40-50MPH drive and you should see a high range (both actual on that drive and estimated after the next charge).

 

[GV Ottawa]

For example, with a gas car, one typically sees MPG highway vs. MPG city

Don't forget that the MPG in a gas car varies dramatically with temperature too! Cold temperature impact on driving range is more obvious in an EV where charging is obviously harder than pulling up to a gas station, but the fuel economy in a gas car can easily drop 40% in the cold winters I experience in Ottawa. So temperature impact on driving range exists in all types of vehicles.

 

[KClark]

Thank you all for your replies. I live in California and my car is in the garage when I charge the car. It is not that cold here. Temp range from 43 - 60F
I am basically asking when you fully charge your car what does your car EV range reads or Honda link apps indicates when it stop charging?
Thanks again.

As I said earlier, I'm in Southern CA. I charge in a garage at night and use my car for a 44 mile round trip commute 5 days a week, my weekly mileage and route are consistent. My dash board EV range regularly reads around 53 miles when it is fully charged, maybe plus or minus a mile. That's been the case since I bought it 13 months ago. I now have 15,000 miles on it.

 

[CyberDyneSystems]

Thank you all for your replies. I live in California and my car is in the garage when I charge the car. It is not that cold here. Temp range from 43 - 60F
I am basically asking when you fully charge your car what does your car EV range reads or Honda link apps indicates when it stop charging?
Thanks again.

To answer your specif question and not continue mansplaining "how it all works"

- Anywhere between 33-62 miles depending on weather temps and how I have been driving the previous few sessions.

 

[JustAnotherPoorDriver]

I looked today. I have a 70 mile round trip, charging only outside at work, preheat at work and heated garage storage at home (but no power). About 40 miles of that is highway, the rest is urban. init's the 40s here in NYC. In this weather I don't use heat, and use the heated seats sparingly.

I got 53 miles today before the ICE went on.

 

[Danks]

Thank you all for your replies. I live in California and my car is in the garage when I charge the car. It is not that cold here. Temp range from 43 - 60F
I am basically asking when you fully charge your car what does your car EV range reads or Honda link apps indicates when it stop charging?
Thanks again.

My car is garage kept as well. Today temps 45-50. After a full charge EV is around 39. The 39 is because we take surface streets and not freeway. If we took freeway it would be more like 29 or lower. In the summer after a full charge EV is up to 65 because we take surface streets. Freeway would be more like 50-55. The Clarity will adjust the EV range it tells you depending on what your range was the last several times you drove. All other things being equal - If we had been taking freeway and started taking surface streets the number will go up and if we had been taking surface streets and started taking freeway it will go down.

 

[TomL]

As others have mentioned, it varies considerably, based on how you drive, road conditions, and temperature. I too have found that the most range is available at lower speeds,. (40mph and under, going 70 plus on the highway eats through battery fast!)
My commute is essentially the same every day, 25 miles total each way, a 50/25/25 mix of 50% high speed highway and 25% city stop and go, and 25% country back roads. In the summer I was getting high 50s in range,. easily making it to and from work on a charge. Right now in winter I am getting 33-35 mile range.

Exactly the same experience for me in Wisconsin.

 

[rodeknyt]

What it all comes down to is that a car with higher EPA estimates will do better than a car with lower EPA estimates in the hands of the same driver in the real world. Real world results have nothing to do with the test environment used for the EPA numbers. Now, if there was only a car comparable to the Clarity that could be used as a comparison (yeah, I know the Chevy Volt, but it is out of production now).

 

[The Gadgeteer]

Your indicated EV range seems to be in line with what I get at those temps.

 

[Dan Albrich]

I am basically asking when you fully charge your car what does your car EV range reads or Honda link apps indicates when it stop charging?
Thanks again.

For my Clarity, tonight, 31 miles after getting home from work and a full charge 2.5 hours later. My typical range of EV numbers year round are 25-43 depending on temperature.

 

[Landshark]

Attached are photos of the dash showing EV range and temperature for the morning and evening commute.

43.7 miles driven, 5 miles remaining, temps between 41-53F. The previous day was 46 driven with 3 remaining and similar temps.

 

[Rajiv Vaidyanathan]

In terms of DISPLAYED EV range when fully charged (as opposed to actual, which can fluctuate wildly depending on conditions):

During our Duluth winters, I rarely get over 28. About 27 is typical. After a warm spell and consistent driving in ideal conditions, I have got as high as 31.

Summers, I see in the low 50s regularly.

 

[Tomrl]

I'm currently guess-o-metering at 42. I've been as high as 60 and in the dead of a very cold last winter was seeing 28.

 

[Dan Albrich]

Just adding some photos of my typical for this time of year, with a little commentary.
One image shows 18.9 estimated EV range remaining with 11.2 miles used. This was taken at lunch time after I drove to and back from work. It's about 30 EV miles estimated. At lunch I realized I didn't have econ turned on, but it also warmed up some. Anyway, the next photo is showing a later in the day shot with 6 EV miles remaining, and 28.8 miles driven (so the range estimate at that point would be more like 35) but I had not yet driven up my hill. I then charged again in the valley, and did some errands before returning home. So the final one is the screenshot of my honda link app showing 32 for tomorrow. This after I drove home up my hill.

Edit: This is my first attempt in the forum to include pics. So the first 2 appear as thumbnails and the last as attach. Next time I'll do them all the same but don't know how to fix it.

 

[4sallypat]

Every winter I see the same ....

However being in warm So Cal in the middle of winter, driving like an old person, not using any heating, single occupant, commute traffic - I get 60+ miles per charge every day...

The only time I don't is after the weekend driving distance on ICE, more passengers, 60+ MPH, and in Sport mode the GOM says 45 miles per charge...