Help us write a Clarity Plug-In Hybrid review

-Car chassis is made of premium light weight & strong material like 40% aluminum throughout and super high-strength steel cage & other special materials. PHEV benefits from the extra protection engineered in when Honda design a high-strength passenger cage to protect the hydrogen tank.
-Honda went to great lengths to make the ride quiet including sound reducing glass & wheels with Honda developed noise reducing resonators
-Brake pedal feels like a normal hydraulic pedal but it combines regen braking initially then seamlessly adds hydraulic as needed but the driver cannot feel it happening - magic of Honda's Brake Force servo motor tech in the pedal mechanism
-There is no traditional transmission instead it uses i-MMD dual electric motors
-Smart self-adjusting computer controlled wiper servo motors
-The iMMD hybrid drive system has been previously deployed in the Honda 2013 PHEV Accord so it is not brand new technology.
-This is one of the world's most energy efficient hybrids despite it large size, comfort and responsiveness
-Includes HondaLink for free with find your car cell based tech that also acts as a free Lo-Jack, lets you trigger preconditioning regardless where the car is with your smartphone
 
Hello all, I'm the one reviewing the Clarity for InsideEVs and Motor1.com, and instead of doing a typical review, I want to do something titled, "10 Things Honda Clarity Owners Want You To Know About Their Car." You've already given me some great material above, but I'd like even more, especially little things about the car that are surprising and delightful, or that Honda doesn't promote heavily but you think are cool.
 
Almost every review dwells too much on the technology and sophisticated driving alternatives of the car. As @jdonalds has said repeatedly, you can just get in and drive it. In fact, the ONLY decision you should make is whether you want to conserve battery for end point driving on long distance trips (in other words, switch to HV drive mode and save the battery), or burn down the battery and increase the effective mpg for the entire trip. I'm firmly in the "former" camp.
 
GreenMachine said:
Hello all, I'm the one reviewing the Clarity for InsideEVs and Motor1.com, and instead of doing a typical review, I want to do something titled, "10 Things Honda Clarity Owners Want You To Know About Their Car." You've already given me some great material above, but I'd like even more, especially little things about the car that are surprising and delightful, or that Honda doesn't promote heavily but you think are cool.
Click to expand...

My incessant, often asked question is so esoteric that it's probably not appropriate for your review.

When descending a grade in a non-hybrid car, smart drivers use engine braking to prevent having to ride the brakes all the way down.
However, Honda's i-MMD hybrid system doesn't have a way to perform engine braking. When an i-MMD hybrid decelerates, the traction motor switches to become a generator, which slows the car as it generates power to recharge the battery.

The big question come up when the battery is fully charged. Honda's engineers had to come up with another way to provide a form of pseudo engine braking that did not involve charging the battery.

A paper Honda engineers wrote about the operation of the Honda's Accord Hybrid's i=MMD system explains that when the battery is fully charged the power from the traction motor (still acting as a generator to slow the car) is directed to the starter motor/generator instead of the battery. The starter motor/generator then spins the engine operating in a resistance mode, where the engine's valves are kept closed and no fuel is supplied.

However, Clarity PHEV drivers decelerating when the battery is fully charged have noted that the car starts its engine! How can the running engine use up electrical power generated by the traction motor as it slows the car? The starter motor/generator is still the only plausible destination for the excess energy the battery cannot accept.

The only theory I can come up with is that the heavier Clarity needs to burn off more energy than the lighter Accord when descending so, at the expense of burning fuel, the Clarity PHEV reverses the action of the starter motor/generator so it burns up more energy than the Accord Hybrid's dead-engine scheme by opposing the torque of the operating engine.

A few drivers on this forum have said they purposely do not fully recharge their batteries simply to provide headroom for the battery to accept regenerated power when decelerating without having the car unceremoniously start its engine. Somehow that doesn't seem right. However, it also doesn't seem right to reduce the Clarity's efficiency by burning fuel to use up excess regenerated power.

Too esoteric a question? OK, why does the rear-seat fold-down armrest in US Claritys have a cover over the cup holders, but the Canadian Claritys have no cover? Does Honda expect those Canadian rear cup holders will always be in use, making the cover superfluous?
 
GreenMachine said:
Hello all, I'm the one reviewing the Clarity for InsideEVs and Motor1.com, and instead of doing a typical review, I want to do something titled, "10 Things Honda Clarity Owners Want You To Know About Their Car." You've already given me some great material above, but I'd like even more, especially little things about the car that are surprising and delightful, or that Honda doesn't promote heavily but you think are cool.
Click to expand...
I would like to point out that many reviews complain about the “small”size if the gas tank. I take issue with this for the following:

1. If you use the car as a commuter vehicle, you’ll likely go thousands of miles between fill ups. Why carry around extra fuel?
2. For long trips, you’ll get about 250-300 miles per tank. So you may have to stop every 3-4 hours to refuel. You may wish to research how many humans can hold their pee longer than that. I certainly can’t.
3. Most people getting the clarity are into electric cars. Even if you’re on a road trip and have to stop every 250-300 miles, that is exactly the same range as most Tesla’s, more than the Bolt, and definitely more than the new Leaf. So it’s hypocritical to praise those cars yet criticize the Clarity for lack of range.
4. Most BEV owners I know also have a backup ICE car in their garage for long trips. The Clarity is the complete package. You don’t need a backup car for trips, because of the gas backup engine. It’s now replaced my wife’s SUV as it’s more comfortable and fuel efficient on long trips. I mean ...that trunk fits a ton of stuff!
 
I can't agree with you more Carro!

I've just gone 2150 km on only 9 litres of gas (plus daily charges for pure electric driving) - I topped up the tank this morning in preparation for a highway trip this weekend.

I've also done a road trip of approx 2400 km to Boston and back and had no issues whatsoever with the size of the gas tank. I stopped whenever we needed to for food, washrooms, etc and just filled up then. I never felt that I needed to force a gas stop due to the smaller tank.
 
Weird cool thing: switching to miles when we entered the USA and back to kilometres when we returned to Canada.

This is very important because there are no auditory cues re your velocity. I depend on the ACC to keep me with a reasonable speed. The car is so quiet.

I didn’t need to convert in my head on the fly to manage my speed.
 
Carro con enchufe said:
I would like to point out that many reviews complain about the “small”size if the gas tank. I take issue with this for the following:

1. If you use the car as a commuter vehicle, you’ll likely go thousands of miles between fill ups. Why carry around extra fuel?
2. For long trips, you’ll get about 250-300 miles per tank. So you may have to stop every 3-4 hours to refuel. You may wish to research how many humans can hold their pee longer than that. I certainly can’t.
3. Most people getting the clarity are into electric cars. Even if you’re on a road trip and have to stop every 250-300 miles, that is exactly the same range as most Tesla’s, more than the Bolt, and definitely more than the new Leaf. So it’s hypocritical to praise those cars yet criticize the Clarity for lack of range.
4. Most BEV owners I know also have a backup ICE car in their garage for long trips. The Clarity is the complete package. You don’t need a backup car for trips, because of the gas backup engine. It’s now replaced my wife’s SUV as it’s more comfortable and fuel efficient on long trips. I mean ...that trunk fits a ton of stuff!
Click to expand...
Carro - so true, ESPECIALLY number 3. Unless you own a Tesla, with its own charging infrastructure (if you are going the right direction), a BEV is a very hit or miss product for a 200+ mile road trip. My wife also finds my Clarity more comfortable than her big people hauler, a Honda Odyssey - BUT - they really need to make the next model a hatchback. I can't begin to explain how good of a cargo hauler my little Prius Gen 3 was compared to my Clarity by being able to drop the seats and lift the hatch
 
dstrauss said:
Carro - so true, ESPECIALLY number 3. Unless you own a Tesla, with its own charging infrastructure (if you are going the right direction), a BEV is a very hit or miss product for a 200+ mile road trip. My wife also finds my Clarity more comfortable than her big people hauler, a Honda Odyssey - BUT - they really need to make the next model a hatchback. I can't begin to explain how good of a cargo hauler my little Prius Gen 3 was compared to my Clarity by being able to drop the seats and lift the hatch
Click to expand...
And even a Tesla Supercharger takes 30 minutes to fill up. Filling up 6 gallons of gas, what, like 30 seconds?
 
GreenMachine said:
Hello all, I'm the one reviewing the Clarity for InsideEVs and Motor1.com, and instead of doing a typical review, I want to do something titled, "10 Things Honda Clarity Owners Want You To Know About Their Car." You've already given me some great material above, but I'd like even more, especially little things about the car that are surprising and delightful, or that Honda doesn't promote heavily but you think are cool.
Click to expand...

Depending on your average daily driving, you can get away with the included 110V EVSE! A 12.5 hour charge can fully charge the battery. The battery is small enough to be fully charged 'overnight' but big enough to get you ~50 miles of all electric range.
 
I have read several reviews and peoples comments on this forum as to how noisy the engine is in HV mode. In particular, Consumers Reports review states: "...its loud gas engine...." and "...the four cylinder engine awakens with a ruckus that's strikingly loud." I now have over 4,000 miles on my Clarity Touring and I find the engine to be so quiet that it is almost impossible to tell when the car's engine is on.

CR tested the base model and not the touring model. I disagree with CR's review in other ways. My wife has a 2017 Honda CR-V. I find the seats and the handling of the Clarity to be as good if not better than the CR-V. Amazingly, CR stated the Clarity had clumsy handling and less than comfortable seats!!!!!! In my view, either CR's staff tested a lemon or they lied.

Also, it wasn't until I had had my Clarity for about a month, when I discovered there is a storage space under the floor of the trunk. The Clarity trunk will hold three golf bags.ClarityTrunk.webp

On a long drive from Florida to Ohio and back, I averaged 43 mph in HV mode.

When reviewing the trunk, mention the storage space under the trunk floor. It is a handy place to keep the 120 volt portable charger, a blanket, etc.
 
You need to drive the Clarity and Volt back to back before writing your review.
  1. Recharge time.
  2. Price comparing feature to feature. Touring clarity compare to premier Volt with driver assistance package.
  3. Visibility
  4. Space for family of four in a road trip
  5. Overall efficiency on 300 mile road trip.
  6. Seat comfort
  7. Brake hold
  8. Air conditioning (the Volt has terrible AC)
  9. Golf club. I can't fit my clubs in the Volt (my fist waving in the air).
 
GreenMachine said:
Hello all, I'm the one reviewing the Clarity for InsideEVs and Motor1.com, and instead of doing a typical review, I want to do something titled, "10 Things Honda Clarity Owners Want You To Know About Their Car." You've already given me some great material above, but I'd like even more, especially little things about the car that are surprising and delightful, or that Honda doesn't promote heavily but you think are cool.
Click to expand...

In line with your specific requests, an anecdote:

- I just gave my Clarity to my 72-yo mother for a week. This included a 200 mile round trip on highways. She's pretty savvy overall, but not with cars (only just coming to grips with the idea of a pushbutton start). She did not need to know any of the features, just drove it. Her review at the end: "Nice car!" "Did you have any issues?" "No, it was fine". I did teach her to push the HV button once when starting a long highway stretch on her long trip (saying that in a sense it was "highway mode" for long trips). This was not complicated, and she could have managed without it.

A few other thoughts that I will add on here.

- Preconditioning is a lot of fun, pleasant out of proportion to the actual inconvenience (uncomfortable hot car) that it fixes

- Must have a charged battery during a test drive. Don't drive it with no battery! (Have written this before).

- Most here are baffled that it is not sweeping the market, based on luxury feel at low price (esp. if you can take advantage of the tax credits), and we blame poor visibility/knowledge. Many of us were looking around at other cars, tried the Clarity as a long shot/by chance and instantly jumped on it.

- Some people have driven 1000s of miles on battery only. If your daily commute is under 40 miles, virtually all commuting will be battery.

-I nearly held out for a Model 3. SO glad I went with the Clarity, for 90% electric commuting, nice feel, 30k less (or more, with Tesla's tax credits about to wind down).

-P.S. Like other commenters, I have no idea where "poor handling" ideas come from. People who know them, in the 'handling' thread, are comparing it in some ways to sports cars. I can't say that, as I don't know "body roll" from a dinner roll, but I do think it handles great and brakes nicely. I also don't understand any reviewer complaints about the noisy engine. I only use engine on the highway (where the car overall is MUCH quieter than my old accord), and where it blends into the background noise. Never any issues.
 
Last edited:
Re Noisy engine - indeed not the case in usual hybrid mode - it will happen when you need power and the battery is depleted - for example going up hills - the engine will go full blast to run the generator. To avoid this, you just need to ensure you have sufficient charge when gong up a hill. This way you have access to the full 212 hp in sport mode when needed. This is where HV recharge function is handy when driving in mountains. This is also more fuel effective than pushing the engine to run the generator.


Sent from my iPad using Inside EVs
 
Congratulations all!

Hot off the presses, a Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid review, made with help from all our awesome owners. :)

Thanks for all your help.

2018-honda-clarity-insideevs-00-copy.jpg
 
"It’s loudest when you’re driving on the highway with HV mode engaged" should have been:
It’s loudest when you’re driving on the highway with HV Charge mode engaged
 
You couldn't make that fix in a magazine. Akinto read the article faster than I did--I should have checked before submitting the same correction. However, it's great that we both zeroed in on that single fact that needed to be corrected.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top