Angry Bees uphills

[Phil_Meyers]

I don’t like using HV when I’m not on the highway. On city roads the engine noise is annoying, although part of my annoyance is probably because the EV mode is so quiet. On the highway the ambient noise level, including my radio, easily drown out the engine noise in HV.

Our Accord is much quieter compared to the clarity when the clarity engine is running, unless it's on a flat highway in hv mode. Honda did a pretty poor job of insulating the noise in the little engine.

 

[insightman]

Our Accord is much quieter compared to the clarity when the clarity engine is running, unless it's on a flat highway in hv mode. Honda did a pretty poor job of insulating the noise in the little engine.

I haven't driven the current Accord Hybrid, but I accept that it's quieter under full acceleration than the Clarity PHEV. I doubt they'd sell many Accord Hybrids if it made Clarity-style angry bee noises most of the time. There are two possible reasons I can imagine the Accord Hybrid is quieter. The Accord Hybrid is lighter than the Clarity PHEV and Accord Hybrid has a larger engine than the Clarity PHEV, so the Accord's engine doesn't have to work as hard as the Clarity's engine.

I'm still suspicious that Honda says both cars have 212 horsepower, even though the Accord Hybrid's engine produces more horsepower than the Clarity's and both cars have 181-hp traction motors.

 

[Dan Albrich]

At slightly higher speeds, you can 'reset the HV mode'...

I'm sorry if I missed this earlier, but I didn't grok one could do this, and it totally makes sense to me. i.e. the car, when it makes high-rpm sounds, is trying to recover electric state of charge to a certain point, which as driver, I likely don't care about.

I suspect my Clarity has never had the traction battery of most of the people in these forums (or other issue I don't understand) as I seem to hit more limitations than others. My mental model is that as the car ages then more of us will understand why tricks like this one become needed. And by the way, I hope I'm wrong for everyone else's benefit.

But yeah, my relative percentage of EV range starts out low like 4-6 months a year, and so I basically have a smaller buffer to work with. I then need to do my 'tricks' to keep my drive pleasant. i.e. I already keep track of my route, and switch to EV only when going over passes, if I know I will have enough EV to get over the pass. I then use HV charge on the downhill to get some charge back for the next pass etc.
For around town, I simply do not let EV ever get to 0, and as needed use HV, or HV charge.

 

[css28]

I haven't driven the current Accord Hybrid, but I accept that it's quieter under full acceleration than the Clarity PHEV. I doubt they'd sell many Accord Hybrids if it made Clarity-style angry bee noises most of the time. There are two possible reasons I can imagine the Accord Hybrid is quieter. The Accord Hybrid is lighter than the Clarity PHEV and Accord Hybrid has a larger engine than the Clarity PHEV, so the Accord's engine doesn't have to work as hard as the Clarity's engine.

I'm still suspicious that Honda says both cars have 212 horsepower, even though the Accord Hybrid's engine produces more horsepower than the Clarity's and both cars have 181-hp traction motors.

I'm not surprised the engine gets busy, given its 103 hp rating, a 2-ton vehicle weight + payload, prolonged grades and 75 - 80 mph sustained speeds.

To put a finer point on it, the Accord hybrid has 40 (38.8%) more horsepower and weights almost 700 lbs less.

Remember, for long trips, the only effective energy source is that engine.

 

[Agzand]

I'm not surprised the engine gets busy, given its 103 hp rating, a 2-ton vehicle weight + payload, prolonged grades and 75 - 80 mph sustained speeds.

To put a finer point on it, the Accord hybrid has 40 (38.8%) more horsepower and weights almost 700 lbs less.

Remember, for long trips, the only effective energy source is that engine.

Yes, there is no way around it. When you are doing a 300 mile road trip, the 1.5l engine by itself should propel the 2 ton car for 260 miles or so. The goal is to use that limited 40 mile electric range (or 20 mile if you are going uphill) for the most demanding section of your trip.

 

[Jennifer B]

Our Clarity almost has 10K miles on it. This car will quickly get a work out, as we drive about 40K a year. We charge at home and at work. By the time we get to work, the battery is drained and I drive in on gas. On the way home it's a little different because the battery is drained just before the ascend into the mountains, so we get pretty bad angry bees going home up the hills. I generally don't want to fiddle around with the modes too much, figuring the car will figure things out, so I generally just leave things alone. However, my wife says "it sounds like the engine is about to explode". Too bad Honda didn't isolate/insulate the engine noise a little better. HV mode when the battery is below half still seems to bring out the angry bees. Any other advice?

Phil, you’re doing things backwards. Since you know your drive, do a few miles in HV to use the ICE early in your commute home. Then turn off HV to do the remainder in electric. Goal: You can then keep, say, three bars electric left for that last uphill near home so your engine never needs to get angry.
Yeah, so you don’t quite get to drain your battery every eve, but you also won’t waste gas struggling up that hill while also trying to recharge the battery. Who wants to come home angry?[emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

[Dan Albrich]

Goal: You can then keep, say, three bars electric left for that last uphill near home so your engine never needs to get angry.

Sorry to do a ditto but:
For me the completely non-intuitive part of this whole deal is that the electric motor in our Clarity is more powerful than the gas engine. Say that again in your mind, rinse, lather, repeat. So the strategy with Clarity is to preserve electric range specifically for the more challenging (hills, mountains).

The reason I state it this way (and even re-state it), is in my specific case my brain seemed to not to grok that the electric motor is more powerful than the gas motor for the first few months of ownership. So like the OP, I was doing things exactly backwards. That is, selecting the gas motor right before going up my hill or other similar act. Once you know that the electric motor really is the work-horse, you do save EV range for the big hills and inclines etc.

I do this to the point where while driving though our passes, I click in and out of HV mode, where I'm using EV (not HV)* for each up-hill. There's no need to do this, but I like to keep the car quiet. I find the quiet of the car when available to be really nice. A favorite feature even.

* I say "not HV" because there is no EV button in the car. If you have EV range left, and you turn HV off, and you're not goosing the gas, then the car will select EV mode on its own. And yep, the presence of ECON mode or not doesn't matter save the sensitivity of the accelerator. (Many think ECON is EV, but it's completely separate function).

PS: My first long-range trip to Cater Lake NP, brand new Clarity, I knew nothing. I let EV range go to zero. Then drove the car hundreds of miles in mountainous terrain with full-on angry bees sounds. My wife asked me if we could get our Subaru back... I can do that same trip quietly now, with the knowledge these forums provided. My dealer knows exactly zero about the car, and could not guide me.

 

[Atkinson]

My Clarity may not be the same as others. It really isn't a pleasant experience to drive anytime EV range = 0. There is no comparison with my Clarity between say 10 EV remaining with HV mode, vs forced HV mode (when EV=0). I don't think this is every Clarity owners experience but it has been mine.

If it were the case that there was no difference, running in HV vs. just automatic HV (due to EV=0), then I'd definitely agree.

My son says the same thing about his Volt.
I told him to save some charge to keep it quiet.
He has Hold Mode which is comparable to our HV Mode.