First Long Trip and Clarity PHEV after 7000 miles

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Viking79

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Right at 6000 miles the Maintenance Minder lit up indicating A01 service was due, tire rotation and oil change and inspection. If this is solely mile based, having an engine hour counter might not be a bad idea as oil changes don't need to be every 6000 miles if you don't run the engine much. Since this is the first oil change will go ahead and do it and the engine was actually run quite a lot over winter. Put another 1000 miles on it since the indicator lit up, now says service required now.

Long trip it was very comfortable. I say long, but not really that long, about 400 miles each way. It was comfortable for 3 kids and two adults and still had plenty of room in trunk. For infants might have run into space issues, but they are 4 and up now so don't take up as much space for travel system strollers and such that infants have.

Gas mileage was around 33 mpg going 75 to 80 mph with a bit of a headwind on trip out, and over 40 to 45 mpg for return trip at 73 to 65 mph with a slight tailwind. I was really impressed with average MPG. Minivan would have been 21 to 25 mpg for same I imagine (driven that trip several times with the van). I think the trip computer is slightly optimistic for mileage, although those can vary based on driving conditions, I reset the trip meter A when I run out of EV and use the info screen that tells me MPG on trip meter A. I also check MPG when I gas up, if the only gas I used was since I reset the trip meter. With such a small gas tank it is a bit error prone (half a gallon top off might make 10% error in calculation).

The HV range calculation is really annoying for trips, being off so much, even down to the fuel light being on it is estimating 2 or 3x what my actual range is. Downright dangerous, this will leave someone stranded. Fuel light seems to turn on when there is about 6 gallons gone, the spec sheet says 7 gallon tank, not sure if that is usable or max capacity. I have filled up 6.3 gallons a few times now.

The adaptive cruise control is really nice, the LKAS is nice as well, but will cut in and out on poorly marked roads, and always should be used supervised with hands on the wheel. On narrow roads you will get the BRAKE warning message at times if a vehicle is a bit in your lane on a turn or if you haven't started turning yet and it thinks you might venture in a vehicles path. Nothing really annoying, maybe happened half a dozen times or less, it doesn't actually act on it, just shakes the wheel a bit and makes sure you are paying attention, not sure if it would be enough warning to actually act on.

Very happy with the car, great for highway travel and around town. I think I have used a total of 80 gallons of gas, which is a bit high, but used a lot in winter and a lot of highway miles. Minivan would have used about 380 gallons plus/minus over the same time frame, so saved about 300 gallons of gas (7 barrels) in only 4 months.
 
I wish the car had EV miles and ICE miles. I think some cars do that, not sure how complicated it would be on the Clarity. 6000 miles maintenance doesn't sound right if the majority are EV miles (city driving and commuting). 80 v/s 380 is huge if it is an accurate calculation. At this rate, you must be saving a tonne of gas dollars!
 
kkiran said:
I wish the car had EV miles and ICE miles. I think some cars do that, not sure how complicated it would be on the Clarity. 6000 miles maintenance doesn't sound right if the majority are EV miles (city driving and commuting). 80 v/s 380 is huge if it is an accurate calculation. At this rate, you must be saving a tonne of gas dollars!
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I estimated an average of 18 or 19 mpg for the van (we tracked it over life and averaged 18 or 19 mpg over 75k miles), and I have tracked how many gallons of gas have gone in the Clarity, but can't really know average mpg due to how it uses electricity. The range based on my actual mpg in the van would be between 15 and 23 mpg depending on city/highway winter/summer driving, so to drive 7000 miles in the van would be roughly 300 to 460 gallons of gas, picked the middle of 380.

It really isn't money savings though, since the difference in cost of the van will never be paid for by fuel savings (or not for a long time, over 150k miles), but given a new van or a new car it would definitely pay for itself fairly quickly given it costs about the same as a van after tax credit. The best way to save money would be to buy one of the cheapest fuel efficient cars, i.e., I don't buy a $37,500 car to save money, but spending that much I do buy an efficient vehicle that won't increase my gas usage.
 
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PS, you are right, I wish it tracked energy usage more thoroughly and indicated EV vs ICE miles, however, I think it can be difficult to track those accurately (like how do you track miles charged by gas engine in HV charge mode). It would be easy to track engine usage hours, which I imagine they do track, just not where you can see it. Also, being winter, it used gas engine far more than it will over summer, so I imagine our gas usage will be much lower over the next 8 months, besides any longer trips we might take.
 
Viking79 said:
PS, you are right, I wish it tracked energy usage more thoroughly and indicated EV vs ICE miles, however, I think it can be difficult to track those accurately (like how do you track miles charged by gas engine in HV charge mode). It would be easy to track engine usage hours, which I imagine they do track, just not where you can see it. Also, being winter, it used gas engine far more than it will over summer, so I imagine our gas usage will be much lower over the next 8 months, besides any longer trips we might take.
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I am not sure if over the air software updates are a reality like the Teslas. I really liked the way Tesla pushed updates OTA, not sure if the Clarity will get updates that way. I am sure some cars track EV miles vs HV miles as they are driven. Not sure which one, no personal experience. Still understanding this car, a newbie here. Not sure if battery can be drained to zero since I have seen zero EV miles reported after depleting the battery. 100% battery charge is another concern. Tesla strongly recommends against both 0 and 100% charge for the battery.

Chrysler Pacifica plug-in looked amazing, my CRV may be replaced by a 7 seater as my family grows and it will be a great contender - roomy and efficient with lot of tech.
 
Yeah, no OTA, but it would be nice. Maybe something they could load at service appointment though.

We were looking at Pacifica Hybrid (PacHy) or Clarity (had to be something to hold 5 comfortably). The reason we ended up Clarity is it had enough room, but was about $10k cheaper than well equipped PacHy (with Active Safety Features) and a vast majority of the time only moving 4 people, so the added EV range was also nice. Didn't drive the PacHy. Vans are nice though, with extra space and all and better mpg than SUVs due to aerodynamics. We did compromise on space, the van was of course better in that regard and could carry 7.
 
According to a Honda presentation from late last year, the engine will come on when the battery reaches 12% or less, not sure if that means the EV range will show 0 at that point.
 
Viking79 said:
I estimated an average of 18 or 19 mpg for the van (we tracked it over life and averaged 18 or 19 mpg over 75k miles), and I have tracked how many gallons of gas have gone in the Clarity, but can't really know average mpg due to how it uses electricity. The range based on my actual mpg in the van would be between 15 and 23 mpg depending on city/highway winter/summer driving, so to drive 7000 miles in the van would be roughly 300 to 460 gallons of gas, picked the middle of 380.

It really isn't money savings though, since the difference in cost of the van will never be paid for by fuel savings (or not for a long time, over 150k miles), but given a new van or a new car it would definitely pay for itself fairly quickly given it costs about the same as a van after tax credit. The best way to save money would be to buy one of the cheapest fuel efficient cars, i.e., I don't buy a $37,500 car to save money, but spending that much I do buy an efficient vehicle that won't increase my gas usage.
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You didn’t buy a 37k car! You bought a 29.5K car ($7500 fed rebate)and most likely less with state rebate ($2500 where I live)


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
It is still $37,500 car, but other people paid for $7,500 of it and gave that to me as reduced taxes. This is why not everyone is a fan of EVs.
 
iluvscuba said:
According to a Honda presentation from late last year, the engine will come on when the battery reaches 12% or less, not sure if that means the EV range will show 0 at that point.
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FWIW, my EV range went to 0 while in EV/Econ, the ICE came on, and there were 2 bars remaining on the battery gauge.
I assume this represents the bottom cushion that prevents battery harm from being fully discharged.
 
Viking79 said:
It is still $37,500 car, but other people paid for $7,500 of it and gave that to me as reduced taxes. This is why not everyone is a fan of EVs.
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Do you feel that other people are paying for your house because of the mortgage interest deduction? We are doing society more good buying an electric car than buying a house!
 
LAF said:
Do you feel that other people are paying for your house because of the mortgage interest deduction? We are doing society more good buying an electric car than buying a house!
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This idea is particularly valid for the Clarity because unlike Teslas you don’t have to be rich to own.
 
KentuckyKen said:
FWIW, my EV range went to 0 while in EV/Econ, the ICE came on, and there were 2 bars remaining on the battery gauge.
I assume this represents the bottom cushion that prevents battery harm from being fully discharged.
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It must, if there are 20 bars they should be close to 5% each, so when two bars left a level of 12% sounds plausible. My Volt doesn't show the buffer level, I like that the Clarity does, even if it makes it feel like the second half doesn't last long :)
 
Not really, I switched to HV at about 50% battery though, and then turn HV off near my destination. Felt pretty much like a normal CVT car, drove up some steep hills no problem. Never bugged me, the only time I really noticed was right before getting home and ran EV range down.
 
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