Honda Clarity PHEV Review

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Viking79

Well-Known Member
I wrote up a review to my new Honda Clarity PHEV. I will update it with more pictures when I get a chance, mainly need some interior shots.

Review at: https://wordpress.com/post/carswithplugs.wordpress.com/37

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Overall, I really like the car. I love the standard safety features and size of the vehicle. Nice refined overall car. Makes my Volt feel a dated and with lots of road noise. I always thought the Volt was pretty quiet ;)
 
Good review. You can get real time efficiency by going into menu->info>trip?? It will also show the total efficiency on Trip A.
 
Thanks for your review!

I own the Touring variant and am also seeing about 35 miles of EV range displayed on the console at 100% charge -- outdoor temp is about 40F.
 
We've seen a range of EV miles after a full charge. It has been anywhere from 42 miles up to 50 miles. It may be based on recent historical mileage.

Here is a snap showing the car can be quite confused about range values. Notice the EV range is showing 8.2 miles, but the HV range is showing 492 miles - clearly wrong. that would compute to about 70mpg, nearly twice the capability of the Clarity.
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My wife and I test drove a Clarity PHEV Touring today. I am very impressed with the car. As others have said, the interior is very comfortable and roomy both front and back. The materials are high quality in appearance and feel.
On the road the handling is very stable. The cabin is very quiet even with the ICE running unless the go pedal is floored. I was unable to perceive the "detent" in the go pedal that has been described as the trigger for ICE. I tried to feel it in both ECON and SPORT mode but could never feel it. Never the less, there was plenty of power for me in ECON ( but I currently drive a Gen 3 Prius ).
The mind twister for me ( after seeing the car in person ) is why Honda insisted on making this car a sedan instead of a hatchback. When you see what a workaround seems to have occurred to put that high deck and the little window between the rear seats you have to wonder why. If they had simply made the Clarity a hatchback I probably would have bought the car today ( it's that good ). As is, because we are a one car family and intend to stay that way we are going to have to give the purchase decision some thought. I will admit the trunk is surprisingly large but the usability of the car is compromised by the sedan configuration.
 
The detent actually feels like the bottom of the pedal travel. With the car off, push the pedal lightly down until it stops, then push harder and the pedal clicks and continues travel.

Econ seems to not hurt acceleration too much, instead turns back the climate control and avoids using gas engine. If you stab the throttle hard it seems to always start though.

I think Sedan is unfortunate side effect of the hydrogen fuel cell base for this car, the back was tall to fit the storage tank for hydrogen, and they didn't need a hatch for that so made it a sedan. It does look like a hatch, unfortunately it is not. I think the EV and PHEV versions are from Honda realizing they couldn't sell enough of the Fuel Cell versions so they quickly made the other two EVs to get sales (helps reduce platform costs), but we end up with the weird rear end design as that would be too expensive to change (more crash tests and validation).
 
I too wish Honda had made it a hatchback. More cargo space. Bigger trunk opening. It wouldn't have looked much different than it does now.
 
I think if the Clarity was just a PHEV vehicle they may have made it a hatchback, but Honda is using this same design for the electric and HFC variants, and the battery and hydrogen tanks go behind the rear seats, effectively blocking that area anyway so a hatchback would be useless. Those other variants don't even have folding rear seats and a smaller trunk area because of that.
 
Viking79 said:
I wrote up a review to my new Honda Clarity PHEV. I will update it with more pictures when I get a chance, mainly need some interior shots.

Review at: https://wordpress.com/post/carswithplugs.wordpress.com/37

sam_9880.jpg

Overall, I really like the car. I love the standard safety features and size of the vehicle. Nice refined overall car. Makes my Volt feel a dated and with lots of road noise. I always thought the Volt was pretty quiet ;)
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That's my color, Viking. You have good taste! ;)
 
Check out this review - especially at the 15:00 minute mark where they "drive" the Clarity without gas pedal or brakes in LA stop and go traffic - only ACC is stopping and accelerating the vehicle:

 
His friend seemed more interested in texting than the car itself. It would have been better if he had someone that was actually interested in the car. ;)
 
dstrauss said:
Check out this review - especially at the 15:00 minute mark where they "drive" the Clarity without gas pedal or brakes in LA stop and go traffic - only ACC is stopping and accelerating the vehicle:

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I like ACC. It is one of the better semi-automatic features of the Clarity. However it needs a software update. When it comes up on a car that is stopped it is much too aggressive, applying the brakes too hard. Then when the car ahead pulls away, and I slightly push the accelerator pedal, the Clarity accelerates so slow it is sure to irritate those behind the car, and me.
 
Not to veer off topic, but I have only really tried the ACC mode one time when it completely stops itself in traffic. Is it supposed to start up again itself when traffic starts moving? That would make sense to me but it didn't seem to when I tried it. Maybe I just didn't wait long enough for it to go on its own, but there were cars behind me and it seemed like if it was going to move on its own it would have be then.
 
loomis2 said:
Not to veer off topic, but I have only really tried the ACC mode one time when it completely stops itself in traffic. Is it supposed to start up again itself when traffic starts moving? That would make sense to me but it didn't seem to when I tried it. Maybe I just didn't wait long enough for it to go on its own, but there were cars behind me and it seemed like if it was going to move on its own it would have be then.
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Did you push the accelerator? It doesn't move on its own. You just have to tap it once.
 
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