Cool Clarity Features

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My plan failed. Tonight I wanted to make a video while driving the Clarity to give curious minds an idea how quiet the car is, including some reasonable acceleration to get on the freeway. Leaving a church meeting I let my phone record the 12 minute ride home including a stretch of freeway. However the phone amplified the road noise and the video came out making the car sound loud.

The truth is the car is so quiet that if I hear a car sound it is usually coming from other noisy cars around me. Unlike the Prius cars we owned a brisk acceleration starts with a quiet electric motor sound (which I like) and it actually gets quieter as the car accelerates. The Prius (not a Prime) would rev the ICE, presumably to run it in an efficient power band. It really wasn't quiet. But the Clarity makes no such sound. It is such a smooth car, and very quiet.

I had a friend ask me to drive his Prius one day. He had just bought it used and he wasn't sure it should sound the way it does when accelerating. I drove it and said, "Yep that's normal."

We always drive the Clarity in Econ mode and the engine never comes on unless we drive far enough for the battery to drain. The video showed me accelerating up to 77 mph without any additional ICE noise.

Perhaps someone else can repeat this process with a video recorder that won't increase the microphone sensitivity?
 
I agree, this car is remarkably quiet. It's on par with my previous Lexus and much more quiet and comfortable than my husband's Infiniti.

One thing that I was glad about was that the Clarity's comfort and performance is not severely diminished when driving on gas only. It just makes a little more noise with the gas engine on. We had a Volt several years ago and while I liked that car, it was wretched to drive when the battery ran out. That one turned into an economy car on gas only.
 
jdonalds said:
My plan failed. Tonight I wanted to make a video while driving the Clarity to give curious minds an idea how quiet the car is, including some reasonable acceleration to get on the freeway. Leaving a church meeting I let my phone record the 12 minute ride home including a stretch of freeway. However the phone amplified the road noise and the video came out making the car sound loud.

The truth is the car is so quiet that if I hear a car sound it is usually coming from other noisy cars around me. Unlike the Prius cars we owned a brisk acceleration starts with a quiet electric motor sound (which I like) and it actually gets quieter as the car accelerates. The Prius (not a Prime) would rev the ICE, presumably to run it in an efficient power band. It really wasn't quiet. But the Clarity makes no such sound. It is such a smooth car, and very quiet.

I had a friend ask me to drive his Prius one day. He had just bought it used and he wasn't sure it should sound the way it does when accelerating. I drove it and said, "Yep that's normal."

We always drive the Clarity in Econ mode and the engine never comes on unless we drive far enough for the battery to drain. The video showed me accelerating up to 77 mph without any additional ICE noise.

Perhaps someone else can repeat this process with a video recorder that won't increase the microphone sensitivity?
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Jdonalds, what you need is a recording system where you can control (turn off) the AGC circuit. The automatic gain control keeps increasing the mike’s sensitivity as it strains to hear any ambient sounds. The car is so quiet, it’s probably increasing the gain as high as it can go, making sounds artificially loud.
 
Ken7 said:
Jdonalds, what you need is a recording system where you can control (turn off) the AGC circuit. The automatic gain control keeps increasing the mike’s sensitivity as it strains to hear any ambient sounds. The car is so quiet, it’s probably increasing the gain as high as it can go, making sounds artificially loud.
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I don't have one. Perhaps someone else does .
 
JyChevyVolt said:
The Clarity cup holder is big and deep. The cup holder has a little flap that you can flip up for small soda can. Who knew!
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This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts - they are so detail oriented they design the cup holder to accommodate a Big Gulp or tiny soda can, but they didn't see that the fuel and electric gauges are basically USELESS.
 
Side Windows: Laminated side windows. This means quieter and 99% UV protection (single pane glass is something like 80%).

Seats: I love the auto adjusting seats in the touring model and they are incredibly comfortable.

Charging: I get about 95% in 1:55, with a bit of a ramp down at the end for the last 20-30 minutes or so. As long as battery is warm it will charge at 7.1 or 7.2 kw for most of the time. Really nice compared to my Volt (I always defended the Volt as a who cares, but if you use public chargers at all or just want to top off over lunch or something the 7 kw charging is really handy, adding over 20 miles range per hour.

Everything: I really like most everything about the car, would prefer a hatchback.
 
dstrauss said:
This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts - they are so detail oriented they design the cup holder to accommodate a Big Gulp or tiny soda can, but they didn't see that the fuel and electric gauges are basically USELESS.
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All GOMs are useless, GM makes the best. The proper way is to count bars. Know the range at 100, 75, 50, and 25%.

At 50%, my Clarity BEV will do 50 miles. I don't even look at the GOM range.

All automakers should add percentage option along with estimated miles.
 
JyChevyVolt said:
All GOMs are useless, GM makes the best. The proper way is to count bars. Know the range at 100, 75, 50, and 25%.

At 50%, my Clarity BEV will do 50 miles. I don't even look at the GOM range.

All automakers should add percentage option along with estimated miles.
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It's got plenty of computer power - shouldn't the car be doing that for me - watching the battery percentage left, the number of miles and speeds driven since full, and giving me a real time estimate of remaining range? Is that really too much to ask?
 
dstrauss said:
It's got plenty of computer power - shouldn't the car be doing that for me - watching the battery percentage left, the number of miles and speeds driven since full, and giving me a real time estimate of remaining range? Is that really too much to ask?
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People in charge are engineers, the software guys are probably getting overruled.

My first compliant was the lack of battery information. Look at techie Tesla, it's been 5 years and they can't fix the browser.
 
JyChevyVolt said:
All GOMs are useless, GM makes the best. The proper way is to count bars. Know the range at 100, 75, 50, and 25%. At 50%, my Clarity BEV will do 50 miles. I don't even look at the GOM range. All automakers should add percentage option along with estimated miles.
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Agree (number of bars), but there should also be a numeric display at least of the number of bars, or percentage is fine too. The segments are so small, I cannot get an accurate number with just a glance. Or, maybe different marks or colors every few segments, maybe with some extra long lines too, like a ruler scale!

BTW, I keep wondering about why 2 segments remain at full discharge of the useable part of the EV battery. Any chance it's kind of an EV reserve if you run out of gas?
 
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This car is remarkably quiet... Until it isn't. I swear sometimes the engine sounds like it is going to rev itself right out of the hood. I actually wonder what it sounds like to other drivers and if they think my car is about to explode or something.
 
PHEV Newbie said:
Some of the coolest clarity features are not easy to see. The first is the extensive use of aluminum. The chassis makes extensive use of ultra high strength steel but most body panels are aluminum (doors, front fenders, hood, trunk lid and roof) as is much of the suspension. That's for weight reduction but it's also the best way to resist corrosion as an added bonus for owners in snowy areas. Another cool feature is that most of the undercarriage is cladded with smooth panels for aerodynamics. You don't find this on any other Honda product other than the NSX supercar. Have a look underneath. It's impressive down there!
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This YouTube video shows the bottom of the car as it rolls past the camera.

 
loomis2 said:
This car is remarkably quiet... Until it isn't. I swear sometimes the engine sounds like it is going to rev itself right out of the hood. I actually wonder what it sounds like to other drivers and if they think my car is about to explode or something.
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The trick is to use battery in the city and hybrid on the highway. As a bonus, you get better fuel economy.
 
Tiralc said:
Agree (number of bars), but there should also be a numeric display at least of the number of bars, or percentage is fine too. The segments are so small, I cannot get an accurate number with just a glance. Or, maybe different marks or colors every few segments, maybe with some extra long lines too, like a ruler scale!

BTW, I keep wondering about why 2 segments remain at full discharge of the useable part of the EV battery. Any chance it's kind of an EV reserve if you run out of gas?
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The Ioniq has all the features your looking for, plus more. Gives you the SOC as a percentage. Too bad Honda couldn't copy it.
 
ab13 said:
This YouTube video shows the bottom of the car as it rolls past the camera.

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Thanks for posting. That was one of the best presentations of the car I've seen. I don't think the guy messed up once (although I did skip through some parts).
 
jdonalds said:
Thanks for posting. That was one of the best presentations of the car I've seen. I don't think the guy messed up once (although I did skip through some parts).
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I like his pointer. A tad goofy looking but very efficient and effective, just like the Clarity.
 
loomis2 said:
This car is remarkably quiet... Until it isn't. I swear sometimes the engine sounds like it is going to rev itself right out of the hood. I actually wonder what it sounds like to other drivers and if they think my car is about to explode or something.
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My husband calls this "the angry bees".
 
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