Yes, but the warranty expiration date is in March 2026 since I bought it in 2020.
Budget Battery Capacity Readout
- Thread starter MrFixit
- Start date
- Replies 729
- Views 213K
Yes, but the warranty expiration date is in March 2026 since I bought it in 2020.
MrFixit
Well-Known Member
Be careful... I think @Landshark has a point that with most of these extended warranties, the quoted time applies from the original vehicle purchase rather than from when you purchased the warranty. Check your paperwork carefully.
“It” being the vehicle or the warranty? Were you the original buyer of the vehicle?
David Towle
Well-Known Member
I thought I should share my battery capacity graph. At 72k miles in May 2023 I finally got the OBD reader. Through 84k miles I was simply charging it to 100% every time I charged. After that I decided to try to charge it to only around 80% since I didn't need the full capacity most of the time. That turned out to be hard to do manually, so around 86k I bought a mechanical timer (for the 120 volt charger) so I could easily go to whatever percent charge I thought I would need, usually between 70-85%. If I need 100%, I charge to 85 then plug in to the 220 volt charger a half hour before I leave. It may sound complicated but its really not hard at all after awhile. Here is my graph, it does show a significant reduction in capacity degradation when I switched charging methodology. Hopefully this is not just happenstance and it continues at the low degradation rate. 
MFKilla
New Member
Hi its me again with my statistic)
Also I installed Solar Panels for my home and since february I charge using only solar))
Clarity its very good car, but time to change it to something on very very high level.
Purchased from China Lixiang L6 Pro (2024 36Kwt LiFePo4 battery CATL + 1.5Turbo generator)
Its very interesting car (just look on a price for new one) with LFP battery. Its better than Li-Ion
Also I installed Solar Panels for my home and since february I charge using only solar))
Clarity its very good car, but time to change it to something on very very high level.
Purchased from China Lixiang L6 Pro (2024 36Kwt LiFePo4 battery CATL + 1.5Turbo generator)
Its very interesting car (just look on a price for new one) with LFP battery. Its better than Li-Ion
Attachments
LFP is a Li-Ion battery.
MFKilla
New Member
Yeap, but different components. More safety, better temp stability, more charging cycles
You said it’s better than Li-Ion, when it is Li-Ion. How is that possible?
For the 3 priorities that you mentioned, LFP may be the appropriate choice. In an application where lower cost or less weight are priorities or 5000 charge cycles are not necessary, a different chemistry may me the appropriate choice.
MFKilla
New Member
Li-Ion was mentioned in the context of the Clarity battery chemistry, which is NMC-based. But since you decided to get smart about it — sure, technically LiFePO4 is also a Li-ion chemistry. That doesn't mean they're interchangeable or that the comparison wasn't valid. It's like saying "all dogs are animals, so a chihuahua and a wolf are basically the same." Cute logic — but no.
PS:
The weight of the Clarity and the Li Auto L6 is quite similar when you calculate it per kWh, even though LFP typically has a lower energy density — but Chinese manufacturers often optimize it well.
Clarity: ~8 kg per kWh
Li L6: ~7.5 kg per kWh — meaning their packaging is a bit more efficient, but still within a normal range.
Last edited:
Why, in your opinion, is a LFP only “technically” a Li-Ion battery?
NMC and LFP are both categorized as Li-Ion batteries. Using your dog analogy, you stated that a lap dog (LFP) is better than a dog (Li-Ion), when what you may have intended to say is that a lap dog (LFP) is better than a hunting dog (NMC).
I pointed out that there are differences between batteries that are within the Li-Ion category. I did not say or suggest that they are interchangeable, although both NMC and LFP can be and are used for the same applications. As you’ve pointed out, both are being used for motive power in EV’s. Either could also be used in an energy storage system.
There are also differences between dogs. Nothing I said should have led you to the conclusion that you reached. A hunting dog would be the appropriate choice when shooting pheasant, a lap dog would be the appropriate choice for cuddling while reading a book. All dogs are not the same. There are even significant differences within the same breed. Some are more trainable than others.
Thomas Clauser
New Member
"We have top men working on it"
"Who?"
"Top.....men"
Success! After 4 months and a couple phone calls to Honda Customer Care, we were finally able to get the traction battery delivered to the dealership and installed the day after they got it. They even replaced the 12v since it had been sitting dead so long.
Total cost - $0
So far, so good. Capacity shows 54.98. But taking the exact same route to and from work every day shows a about a 30% less SOC usage than with the previous battery. My typical range (in spring, little AC/heat, mostly surface roads) was around 40 miles, after a few days of driving I'm showing 57 (which will balance out over time)
That's only after a week, but all signs point to success so far.
So there's a warranty success story for anyone in that situation.
I was at 38.8ah with 85k miles
David Towle
Well-Known Member
And if you follow the generally accepted charging rules you can make this new battery last many times longer than the first one.
This worked out perfectly--the first battery to conveniently conked out while still covered by the warranty. The second battery is the one you want to coddle.
My gen-1 Insight's NiMH battery failed a month after the warranty expired. Fortunately, Honda took pity on me and we split the cost of the replacement.
MrFixit
Well-Known Member
@Thomas Clauser - A success story indeed !
It did seem like a painful process where you had to maintain pressure (and wait an undue amount of time for the repair) though. Was there any indication with the paperwork as to whether this is a new or refurbished battery?
It will be interesting to monitor this battery going forward.
Nice job holding Honda's feet to the fire !
What is the warranty period on the new battery?
Micromanaging the charging process may allow the battery capacity to remain above the warranty threshold for a longer period of time. It isn’t likely to be many multiples longer when compared to a battery that is charged per Honda’s default protocol. Once it is understood that the battery never experiences a 100-0-100 charge cycle, the futility of attempting to control that to 80-20-80 should become obvious.
Keep in mind, a battery that can provide 2000 full charge cycles can also provide 4000 “half” charge cycles. In either case the battery is providing the same amount of energy over its lifetime. All else being equal, if one owner does a half charge at home and another at work in order to meet their daily driving needs, and another owner just does a full charge at home, both batteries are likely to expire at the same time. Similarly, doing a full charge every other day, for someone who can make 2 round trips on a full charge, would likely yield similar results to someone who did a half charge every day.
The failure of the battery mentioned above suggests that something other than charging caused the failure.
As I approached 100K miles on my Clarity, I started measuring the battery capacity more frequently. It appears that the battery degradation curve is flattening out and will not get down to 36.6 by the time the Honda factory warranty ends at 100K miles. The extended 120K 6-yr warranty I bought does not specifically state that it covers the Li-Ion battery in my car, so I have to assume that it will not cover a replacement. In addition, I know there are no new replacement batteries in stock, and the wait period for a remanufactured battery is undetermined. I'm also uncertain how well the car will perform (or if it will even continue operating) as the battery degrades further. I'll attach a graph showing the capacity measurements.
Anyway, I decided to be proactive, so this weekend I drove from Phoenix to Mission Bay Chevrolet in San Diego to trade in my 2018 Clarity with almost 99K miles for a 2020 Clarity with about 25K miles. It's the same base model with the same pearl white exterior and beige interior. So I now own practically the same car, just 2 years newer with 74,000 fewer miles on the odometer. The car was overpriced, and my trade-in was underpriced, but with the $4,000 tax credit (which is going to go away on Sept 30 because of the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill"), I now have a newer Clarity for about $10K out of pocket. The battery capacity on this 2020 Clarity is 47.8 Ah - not fabulous but a lot better than 37 Ah.
I don't know how the Honda warranty works, but I sincerely hope that whoever buys the 2018 vehicle from the California dealer will be able to benefit from the 150K 10Yr warranty that California offers. Does anyone know how that extra long warranty works?
Anyway, I decided to be proactive, so this weekend I drove from Phoenix to Mission Bay Chevrolet in San Diego to trade in my 2018 Clarity with almost 99K miles for a 2020 Clarity with about 25K miles. It's the same base model with the same pearl white exterior and beige interior. So I now own practically the same car, just 2 years newer with 74,000 fewer miles on the odometer. The car was overpriced, and my trade-in was underpriced, but with the $4,000 tax credit (which is going to go away on Sept 30 because of the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill"), I now have a newer Clarity for about $10K out of pocket. The battery capacity on this 2020 Clarity is 47.8 Ah - not fabulous but a lot better than 37 Ah.
I don't know how the Honda warranty works, but I sincerely hope that whoever buys the 2018 vehicle from the California dealer will be able to benefit from the 150K 10Yr warranty that California offers. Does anyone know how that extra long warranty works?
Attachments
MrFixit
Well-Known Member
Well, you were so close that it's not funny. I might have leaned on the dealer / Honda to make a warranty claim...
You clearly like the Clarity and found another solution to keep the dream alive !
OP - Not sure if someone changed the validation rule on the "State" column in the spreadsheet or I am doing something wrong.
The state blanks out once the country is chosen as US. Manually entering the state doesn't seem to work either.
On the note of degradation, it does appear it slows down once the battery capacity reaches the low 40's
The state blanks out once the country is chosen as US. Manually entering the state doesn't seem to work either.
On the note of degradation, it does appear it slows down once the battery capacity reaches the low 40's
I'm not sure what happened to the State field for your data. I fixed it by copying a State field from another row. It worked then and I was able to set your State to Nevada to match your other entries.