After getting a couple claritys (one for me, one for wife) the gas-guzzling volvo had been sitting idle for quite some time, and of course when I went to start it, the battery was dead. Volvo, being stupid, requires the battery to open the trunk where my jumper cables were stored...I mean really - but that is more of a rant. Anyway, had another set of jumper cables luckily and located what i think is the larger battery on the Clarity (on passenger side of hood). Hooked everything up and went to start clarity...not being stupid.......I switched the car to HV mode and shifted into neutral and tried to accelerate to activate the gas engine/generator. Ugh, the Clarity does not let you do this, leaving in park or switching to neutral and trying to press the "gas" pedal only results in failure/some sort of warning that you are in neutral. Let the car sit turned on with the gas engine not running for around 3 minutes, and decided to just see if anything happened. Lo and behold, the charge was transferred, Volvo fired right up and I drove around 30 minutes to charge the battery (as should be done).
TLDR: The Clarity will jump a car even if the gas engine doesn't fire up, so don't get overly frustrated as I did when I couldn't force a gas engine start.
TLDR: The Clarity will jump a car even if the gas engine doesn't fire up, so don't get overly frustrated as I did when I couldn't force a gas engine start.