Another long road trip in the Clarity

C

Clarity Dave

Member
Three years ago we took a 6500 mile trip in our Clarity, which I wrote about here:

https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/six-grand-road-trip-report.7107/

We just returned from a somewhat longer one, from Seattle to Cape Cod and back.

Distance: 7,755 miles
Gasoline used: 155 gallons
Estimated charging en route: 240 kWh

Not much different to report from last time.

I knew we'd reach the tire rotation interval mid-trip, so had the tires rotated in Worcester, MA.

On the last day of the trip driving over Blue Mountain Pass between La Grande and Pendleton in snow and fog, I got the "Radar Obstructed" warning which turned off adaptive cruise control (and collision mitigation), so I switched to conventional cruise and managed following distance the old fashioned way. When we descended to Pendleton, the weather cleared and ACC became available again without me having to clear the Honda badge in front.

Still very happy with the Honda as a road trip car. I think we added less kWh of charge this trip than last time because we had longer travel days (therefore less time to charge during the day) and ended up overnighting in more places where charging wasn't possible. Also, public level 2 charging is being neglected in favor of fast DC charging stations, which I guess makes sense in the big picture, but it's not great for those of us who drive PHEVs with battery packs too small for fast DC. OTOH, it just means we burn more gas than we'd like.
 
Clarity Dave said:
Also, public level 2 charging is being neglected in favor of fast DC charging stations, which I guess makes sense in the big picture, but it's not great for those of us who drive PHEVs with battery packs too small for fast DC.
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So much for inclusivity. How difficult would it be to reduce the 480VAC feeding the DC charger to 240VAC and add a few L2 chargers? But then when we have morons in charge (pun intended) we can expect such outcomes.

Fortunately, charging isn’t a necessity with a PHEV and many have the ability to charge on the fly so that EV range will be available when desired.
 
Clarity Dave said:
Especially at today's gas prices. Assuming 3.5 miles per kWh, a "real" fuel economy estimate is 44 mpg, which is still remarkable for a two ton car with many of the miles traveled at 70-75 mph
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Yes, remarkable indeed...
I have more limited experience with long distances entirely on gas than you, but I have found my HV mileage to be ~45.
 
Clarity Dave said:
Especially at today's gas prices. Assuming 3.5 miles per kWh, a "real" fuel economy estimate is 44 mpg, which is still remarkable for a two ton car with many of the miles traveled at 70-75 mph.
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Outside of WA, OR and CA, the rest of the nation has regular gas priced between $2.85-3.50/gallon. Last Friday I was cleaning out the pickup truck. In the depths of the center console was a receipt for regular gas, dated 2008. The price was $4.35/gallon. I drove to Costco and filled up for $4.59, less 4% ($.18/gal) or $4.41/gal.

Can you clarify your “real” fuel economy estimate? Are you combining gas and electric to reach that figure? Combining the two just muddies the waters, especially when the result is listed a Miles Per Gallon.

I’ve calculated 36mpg on long trips, at 75-80mph. That’s based on miles travelled and gas added, with little to no battery capacity used. Using the same method, I’ve calculated 47-51mpg at 62-65mph.

Beyond the tainting of data, including electric energy as part of a MPG figure has an infinite number of variables. We could travel 40 miles on electric and 40 miles on a gallon of gas and conclude that we achieved 80mpg. We did travel 80 miles while consuming 1 gallon of gas. However, we also consumed 12-14kWh’s of electricity on the trip. This makes the 80mpg figure completely meaningless.
 
Landshark said:
Can you clarify your “real” fuel economy estimate? Are you combining gas and electric to reach that figure? Combining the two just muddies the waters, especially when the result is listed a Miles Per Gallon.
Click to expand...

I'd be happy to.

I keep a physical log book of gas fillups and kWh input each time I charge -- much of the charging was from 120V outlets using the Honda cable, or from EVSEs that don't display cumulative energy output, so I estimate the charge amount based on change in number of bars displayed (I use 0.7-0.75 kWh/bar; if anyone has a more accurate figure for that I'd love to know it) or the change in battery charge percentage in HondaLink.

I use 3.5 miles/kWh to come up with the number of EV miles. IMO 3.5 is generous, but that minimizes inflation of the mpg result.

I then subtract that figure from the total miles and divide the result by gas consumed in the trip. I start the trip with a full tank and fuel up as soon as possible after returning home, driving EV only in the meantime.

So for this trip:
Per the odometer, 41357 - 33602 = 7755 miles
7755 miles - (260 kWh * 3.5 kWh/mile) = 6845 miles
6845 miles / 154.94 gallon = 44.18 miles/gallon

I didn't track what percentage of the miles were 70 mph and over. Many days were largely spent on interstates or the Trans-Canada, but others were entirely on US and state highways. When we weren't in a hurry, I minimized traveling at speeds above 70 mph. That likely helped.
 
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