Honda Clarity, the Volt Challenger

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Tony: Good List. My experience shows the following slight modifications:
+ Runs well in EV. I have been running in 100% EV since February.
+ I really like the adjustable Regen feature via the paddles. Going into the top Regen mode really slows the car!
 
Johngalt6146 said:
Tony: Good List. My experience shows the following slight modifications:
+ Runs well in EV. I have been running in 100% EV since February.
+ I really like the adjustable Regen feature via the paddles. Going into the top Regen mode really slows the car!
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EV - Yes you can run EV but you have to think about it. If you punch a Volt to get on the freeway it does not fire the motor.

Regen - You pull it and it it on full, you don't have to pull it multiple times.

Just differences..
 
Tony-B said:
I put this Pro/Con list together for my wife. We are getting a Clarity in the next few weeks. We have had 2 volts, each for 3 years. Ask me anything.


Cons:

Harder to drive in EV only - Just drive and the Volt will not use the ICE
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I very much like the way the Clarity is designed. Neither my wife nor I have caused the ICE to kick on inadvertently. There is plenty of power in ECON / EV mode for normal acceleration. Yet the full power of the vehicle is instantly available in the few cases we needed it. I've had two occasions when I needed to get out of the way of an approaching car. Out of habit I jammed the accelerator to the floor which provided the power I needed to get out of the way. To me this is better than having to push a button enabling the ICE.
 
Please realize that I am not criticizing the Clarity. I'm buying one. I think they look good. The Clarity interior is much nicer. As a 6 year Volt owner I am just comparing the two.

I have to train my wife (Lead-foot Mary) on what the differences are and the methods she will use. She is used to getting in it, put it in L and go. Pull the regen paddle for max regen. I believe that the Volt has more acceleration and she still floors it. You never have to push a button for the ICE unless you want to charge the battery. Even with a heavy foot she was able to go 5779 miles on one tank of gas.
 
Both a pro and a con: Aluminum door skins lighten the car to improve efficiency but are more vulnerable to door-dings from inconsiderate other drivers and passengers. I made up a verb that explains where I park our Clarity PHEV in public parking lots: I "hinterland" it, meaning I have a longer walk than people who select a closer parking space just inches from the dangerous doors of other cars.
 
Tony-B said:
I have to train my wife (Lead-foot Mary)
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Tell Mary to keep the car in ECON Mode and don't tell her she can push past the accelerator "click" so she'll think it's floored, but won't cause the engine to start. We've driven for months at a stretch without the engine starting.
 
Tony-B said:
Please realize that I am not criticizing the Clarity. I'm buying one. I think they look good. The Clarity interior is much nicer. As a 6 year Volt owner I am just comparing the two.

I have to train my wife (Lead-foot Mary) on what the differences are and the methods she will use. She is used to getting in it, put it in L and go. Pull the regen paddle for max regen. I believe that the Volt has more acceleration and she still floors it. You never have to push a button for the ICE unless you want to charge the battery. Even with a heavy foot she was able to go 5779 miles on one tank of gas.
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Yes I see. We all have different habits. Your wife may not be pleased with the accelerator design of the Clarity. If she continues the habit of flooring it she'll be using gas every drive.
 
@Tony-B, 4 pieces of free advice:
1. Follow @insightman ’s advice and let
her think the accelerator detent is
flooring it.
2. Pray that “Leadfoot” Mary doesn’t
read your post.
3. Sometimes you just have to punt on
3rd down.
4. A Chinese proverb translates:
“happy wife; happy life”

We’re all pulling for you. :)
 
insightman said:
Both a pro and a con: Aluminum door skins lighten the car to improve efficiency but are more vulnerable to door-dings from inconsiderate other drivers and passengers. I made up a verb that explains where I park our Clarity PHEV in public parking lots: I "hinterland" it, meaning I have a longer walk than people who select a closer parking space just inches from the dangerous doors of other cars.
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We call this "parking in the shade", after an old habit of my dad (in Ann Arbor I might add). I guess Leaf owners can commiserate...
 
Sorry if I said this earlier but the Clarity and Volt fill entirely different niches. If you want a small, sporty PHEV that looks like a conventional car (Volt looks just like the Chevy Cruze), choose a Volt. If you want a big, luxurious PHEV that looks futuristic and green, choose the Clarity. They have similar EV range and Clarity actually does much better than Volt in real world HV gasoline mileage. It's good to have the choice but to my knowledge, there's nothing else (PHEV) that has the same EV range.
 
PHEV Newbie said:
Sorry if I said this earlier but the Clarity and Volt fill entirely different niches. If you want a small, sporty PHEV that looks like a conventional car (Volt looks just like the Chevy Cruze), choose a Volt. If you want a big, luxurious PHEV that looks futuristic and green, choose the Clarity. They have similar EV range and Clarity actually does much better than Volt in real world HV gasoline mileage. It's good to have the choice but to my knowledge, there's nothing else (PHEV) that has the same EV range.
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Your system of niches must have a lot of niches. Ask a Ford F-150 owner about niches and that driver will likely lump the Volt and Clarity PHEV together into the same niche.

The BMW i3 PHEV has more range than the Volt or Clarity and I'd put it into a different niche from the Volt and Clarity, but that Ford F-150 owner...
 
... and then there was one. No More Volts. I think GM is missing something here. The Clarity's (about) 50 miles gives us a full electric car which is still useful when we need to go farther. And there was no need to waste resources on a bigger battery. Does this mean the Clarity wins the challenge (unless we hear that Honda is dumping the Clarity)?
 
Reasons GM may have killed the Volt and other cars.

1) The American public is walking away from sedans. This year sedan sales represented only 30% of the market, the bulk of the rest were trucks, crossovers, and SUVs. Sedan market share has been shrinking for a few years.

2) There is more competition. If you're paying attention to world wide electrified car sales they are growing in volume and there are new entries such as many new car manufacturers in China. Who's making the majority of electrified cars? Not GM. So GM is taking money from closing plants and targeting BEV markets by putting new cars in the design cycle.

3) With the future (who knows when) moving into autonomous cars there will simply be less cars purchased. Those that do sell won't be of the sedan variety.

4) GM has union negotiations coming up at the end of 2019. Idling those plants gives GM powerful bargaining tools. GM has not announced selling those plants, just stopping operations for now. The mix of assembly plant workers is changing as there are more technical jobs required for BEVs and less overall part quantity for lower skilled workers.

5) Volt $7,500 tax credit is going away because government limits have been reached. Same for Tesla. It will be interesting to watch Tesla sales if the tax credits are not extended.

6) Chevy Volt sales are way down in 2018 vs 2017.

I'm interested in seeing the sales figures for the Volt and Clarity for November. It's possible the Clarity PHEV, in it's first year of production, will top Volt sales for the year. Volt sales could go up though as dealers want to dump them and drop prices.
 
insightman said:
Artificially low government-subsidized gas prices favor trucks and SUVs, and killed the Volt.
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That’s a very simplistic way of looking at it and does not account for all factors in the US.

Are there what some people call subsidies given to the oil industry? Yes. Are subsidies given to a large amount of industries? Yes.

A large amount was given to the oil industry during the Obama administration. So it’s not just related to political parties.

There are several factors like the price of gas, easy credit, personal preferences and tax laws.

1. The US has always preferd larger vehicles and will for a long time. Our roads and areas to park were designed for larger vehicles unlike other counties that basically converted from much older roads that were designed for non motorized vehicles of transport. If you would rather have a smaller car then please get one. If you like larger vehicles please get one. The US is has and will be about personal preferences. We don’t have some arbitrary tax penalty assessed to vehicles over specific ICE displacement or vehicle weight like other countries.

2. We have cheap money credit rates that allows people to get more expensive vehicles like trucks, SUVs and CUVs. The US also has and has had a higher level disposable income compared to other most parts of the world.

3. Gas is cheap now. When gas is cheap people don’t care as much on the operating cost. Also personally cheap gas is not a bad thing. It helps keeps the cost of all goods down. The 70s and more recently 2008 is a good example of what happens when gas is to high. When it is to high people at lower incomes get hurt. For me $3 plus gas does not hurt me but does hurt the lower income households.


4. The US is no longer going to be subsidizing the VOLT and other GM cars with the reduction of the 7500 tax credit now that they are approaching the magic sales numbers. The reduction of the tax credit / government subsidy is probley one of the larger reasons the VOLT is going away. Personally I don’t think there should be any tax credits but if one is avaible to me I will take it as I will with any other tax advantage I can get.

5. Cash for clunkers. This was a program they had a large amount cars get scraped to subsidize the auto industry. The side effects caused the price of used cars to go up and reduce the overall inventory avaible to people. This made people choose new vehicles that would have normally been in the market for used only as the price between new and old were not that much for some. I always wonderd if the reduction in the amount of used cars caused some to get Trucks, SUVs and CUVs.
 
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