Here are the changes to the 2020 Clarity Plug-In Hybrid.

Honestly, I won't even believe the acoustic alert has changed until someone has a 2020 and can compare/listen side by side with a 2018/2019. That article really just seemed to be from skimming a feature list or press release and jumping to conclusions, not realizing the 2018/2019 already has an AVAS that should meet the govt regulations.

I'm assuming there are no changes until someone has one in person :-)
 
Having come from the first year Prius Prime, we can count ourselves lucky. The 2020 Prime is still only "25 miles" (often much less) on battery,. and is still not as comfortable or nice a ride as our Clarity.
 
Interestingly, the familiar rating of 212 horsepower is missing from this press information. Now it says "Power is rated at 181 horsepower...," which is the most horsepower the electric motor can produce when operating on battery + engine-generated electricity. I've never read a plausible explanation of Honda's 212-horsepower claim for this car, the Accord Hybrid, and the CR-V Hybrid.

The main new addition is the pedestrian acoustic alert
The article's subtitle implies the Clarity never had an Acoustic Vehicle Alert system before 2020. From what I read earlier, if anything, the 2020 Clarity now has LESS of an Acoustic Vehicle Alert System because it is now silent when the ICE is running.
 
insightman said:
Interestingly, the familiar rating of 212 horsepower is missing from this press information. Now it says "Power is rated at 181 horsepower...,"
Click to expand...
But it does say:
" In Sport mode, it can sprint to sixty in just under 10 seconds, while in EV mode it can do it in under 13 seconds."

Seems to be confusing terminology. I did not think sport mode is exclusive of EV mode.

Maybe their definition of EV mode is staying shy of the go pedal click... But wonder if full horsepower of electric motor is used before the click, what happens after that point?

Makes me wonder about the usefulness of anything in the article...
 
Last edited:
ClarityBill said:
Makes me wonder about the usefulness of anything in the article...
Click to expand...
The article certainly doesn't agree with my understanding of SPORT Mode. I believe that SPORT Mode simply provides a more aggressive mapping for the accelerator pedal. It also eliminates the function--but not the click--of the accelerator pedal click and makes the Deceleration Selector Paddle settings remain in effect until changed (instead of returning to the default setting after a few seconds).
 
It may be possible for some of us to agree that magazine editors, moto-journalists and road test drivers do not understand how a Clarity operates.
 
insightman said:
The article certainly doesn't agree with my understanding of SPORT Mode. I believe that SPORT Mode simply provides a more aggressive mapping for the accelerator pedal. It also eliminates the function--but not the click--of the accelerator pedal click and makes the Deceleration Selector Paddle settings remain in effect until changed (instead of returning to the default setting after a few seconds).
Click to expand...

I can't be certain, but when I was fiddling with some quick acceleration last year I found that in ECON mode the needle on the dash would max out at where the white semicircle began to fatten out (circled in red below). This was foot to the floor (past the detent) - it was accelerating quickly but appeared to be leaving a little something off the table. In SPORT mode I was able to get the needle buried all the way to the bottom of the semi-circle, to the end of the fattened section of the white arc. I can't recall what the 0-60 times were.

Perhaps others can verify.

upload_2020-1-28_18-24-12.webp
 
Federal standards for pedestrian alerts changed for MY 2020. Honda is the only company I've seen that chooses to highlight it as a new feature.
The old sound did not meet the new requirements, as is the case with most (if not all) other warning sounds previously in use.

A little sample of the regs:
For alerts designed to meet the four-band requirements of S5.1 of this standard:

(i) Select any four one-third octave bands that are non-adjacent to each other and that span a range of at least nine one-third octave bands in the range of 315 Hz up to and including 5000 Hz to evaluate according to paragraph S7.1.5(d)(ii). This step will be repeated until compliance is established or it is determined that no combination meeting this selection criterion can satisfy paragraph S7.1.5(d)(ii).

(ii) Compare the average corrected sound pressure level from S7.1.5(c) in each of the four one-third octave bands selected in paragraph S7.1.5(d)(i) to the required minimum level of the corresponding one-third octave band specified in paragraph S5.1.1, Table 1, to determine compliance.

For alerts designed to meet the two-band requirements of S5.2 of this standard:

(i) Select the two one-third octave bands, one below 1000 Hz and one at or above 1000 Hz, having the largest A-weighted SPL values within the range of 315 Hz up to 3150 Hz and that are non-adjacent to each other to evaluate according to S7.1.5(e)(ii), below. In the event that the pair of bands with the largest SPL values are the 800 Hz and 1000 Hz bands, then select both of the following pairs to evaluate according S7.1.5(e)(ii): The 800 Hz band along with the band having the second-largest A-weighted SPL value from the 1000 Hz and above bands; and, the 1000 Hz band along with the band having the second-largest A-weighted SPL value from the 800 Hz and below bands. At least one of the band pairs selected as specified in this paragraph shall meet the minimum requirements when evaluated according to S7.1.5(e)(ii).

(ii) Compare the average corrected sound pressure level from S7.1.5(c) in each of the two one-third octave bands selected in paragraph S7.1.5(e)(i) to the required minimum level of the corresponding one-third octave band specified in paragraph S5.2, Table 6. Also, compare the band sum of the two bands to the required minimum band sum in Table 6.

S7.1.6 Select one-third octave bands to be used for evaluating compliance with directivity requirements for a stationary vehicle.

Determine the one-third octave band levels associated with the four front center sound files selected in S7.1.3.

The identified one-third octave band levels in each of the four sound files will be corrected for the measured ambient levels as specified in paragraph S6.7.

The four corrected sound pressure level values calculated from each of the four sound files in each one-third octave band will be averaged together to get the average corrected sound pressure level in each one-third octave band.

For alerts designed to meet the four-band requirements of S5.1 of this standard:

Select any four one-third octave bands that are non-adjacent to each other and that span a range of at least nine one-third octave bands in the range of 315 Hz up to and including 5000 Hz to evaluate according to paragraph S7.1.6(d)(ii). This step will be repeated until compliance is established or it is determined that no combination meeting this selection criterion can satisfy paragraph S7.1.6(d)(ii).​

If you want to see the whole thing:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.141

It's so very specific about what type of warning sounds must be made under different conditions including speed, gear selector position, forward or reverse motion, etc. Choosing not to have the warning sound active when the ICE is running may have been the conservative approach to not getting caught having the wrong sound playing for a given condition.
 
Perhaps it was a mistake and people have ignored it as such, but Honda's website claims that the 2020 model has an "available" heated steering wheel. I haven't seen any mention of this on these forums yet.

upload_2020-1-28_22-32-3.webp


I found it on this webpage. Is this indeed an error? The same text does not display for the 2019 model.
 
That site also says “HV more (yes, more, not mode) helps optimize charging and can regenerate up to almost 48% of the battery capacity.”

Is HV more the new HV charge?
Does it now only charge the battery up to almost 48% rather than 58%?
 
Pooky said:
Perhaps it was a mistake and people have ignored it as such, but Honda's website claims that the 2020 model has an "available" heated steering wheel. I haven't seen any mention of this on these forums yet.

View attachment 7272

I found it on this webpage. Is this indeed an error? The same text does not display for the 2019 model.
Click to expand...
The wheel on the new CRV Hybrid looks to be the same three-spoke as on the Clarity, and it has a heated option IIRC, so perhaps they can just do a swap/build with it.
 
css28 said:
I'd love for that to be true, but they don't offer any means on the "Build" pages to specify it.
Click to expand...
Well it seems like strange wording to me since it also lists the heated seats as “available” even though they come standard, don’t they?
 
JustAnotherPoorDriver said:
The wheel on the new CRV Hybrid looks to be the same three-spoke as on the Clarity, and it has a heated option IIRC, so perhaps they can just do a swap/build with it.
Click to expand...

Someone posted here that the CRV steering wheel wouldn't work on the Clarity. There was a successful swap with a Civic that was posted here. If the new Civic offers a heated steering wheel, that might be an option for a retrofit, assuming you can get 12V power to the heating element connection....
 
Ray B said:
I can't be certain, but when I was fiddling with some quick acceleration last year I found that in ECON mode the needle on the dash would max out at where the white semicircle began to fatten out (circled in red below). This was foot to the floor (past the detent) - it was accelerating quickly but appeared to be leaving a little something off the table. In SPORT mode I was able to get the needle buried all the way to the bottom of the semi-circle, to the end of the fattened section of the white arc. I can't recall what the 0-60 times were.
Click to expand...
I just took a quick errand, and my Clarity goes 'full-scale' acceleration in ECON mode with foot to floor (ICE starts). Goes to about 11/16 of scale at the detente in ECON mode (ICE was running due to previous detente pass).

Acceleration seemed the same in ECON and SPORT mode, pedal at the floor. Needle goes same full-scale in ECON or SPORT.
 
ClarityBill said:
I just took a quick errand, and my Clarity goes 'full-scale' acceleration in ECON mode with foot to floor (ICE starts). Goes to about 11/16 of scale at the detente in ECON mode (ICE was running due to previous detente pass).

Acceleration seemed the same in ECON and SPORT mode, pedal at the floor. Needle goes same full-scale in ECON or SPORT.
Click to expand...

This makes sense from a safety perspective.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top