I’ll try to answer your questions based on my experience.
The car starts by default in “EV mode” even if it was in HV or HV Charge mode when last run. If Econ was selected at last run it will turn on next in Econ; as in it remembers whether Econ was last on or not. This is not the case with Sport which is cancelled upon restart.
When the state of charge depletes to 0 EV range and 2 bars, it will automatically switch to HV mode but the HV indicator does not light up (at least on my Clarity). The Power Meter will change to showing much more white and indicating where the gas engine will turn on.
So you don’t need to select the mode every time you drive. It will always start in EV and will remember if you last selected Econ or not. If you want to start out in Sport, you will have to select that every time you start.
In HV mode, the computer algorithm will run the gas engine predominantly (but not totally) and switch between mechanically coupling to wheels, charging the battery, supplying electrical power to the motor, and combinations of these power flows along with regeneration in an attempt to give you the best efficiency, economy, and power. It will, for the most part, keep your state of charge at its level when entering HV mode. For example, on a 500 mile round trip, my gas engine ran 2/3s of the time and I only lost 1 bar of battery. It is worth noting that many of us have found that manually switching to HV before EV range gets to 0 and 2 bars gives a better driving experience (especially going up hills or at speeds over 60) as in more power, better economy, and less chance of the high reving “angry bees” sound.
The car will run on gas with virtually no usable charge left, but several have reported a poor driving experience and a few have experienced a dangerous lack of power in that scenario. From my experience, the one time I experimented and let the charge deplete, HV worked normally (no loss of power and no high revs) in city and highway driving (no hills, under 60 mph). I would not want to try that on hills or at high speeds.
So basically, you can let the car do the thinking for you and just drive it. The only time I manually over ride the computer is if I have a low state of charge and have steep hills ahead. That would be the only time I would use HV charge to replenish the battery charge so I could have plenty of power for the climb. Of course, it’s an even better strategy to anticipate the climb and switch to HV before EV driving depletes the battery charge.
Also some report better economy and driving experience by choosing HV for the highway drive and switching to EV when their destination is within their EV range.
Bottom line is that the Clarity is an excellent hybrid design that will almost always let you just get in and drive, but that can be made even better by using the tips shared above from several posts.
Welcome to the forum. I infer from your name and the syntax of your post that English is not your native or primary language. I hope that no one gives you a hard time about that. Personally, I think it proves that you are much smarter than most of us since you are at the very least bilingual. ( I barely mastered English!)
I hope you enjoy your Clarity as much as the rest of us are and look forward to you sharing your experiences and insights as you drive it more. I’ve learned a great deal from the many helpful members of this forum and am only sad that I’ll never meet them or you.
