Newbie Picking up from Texas

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Bbeardb

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Hi all! Soon to be new electric anything owner here. I’m flying out today, the day after thanksgiving, from Colorado to Plano, Texas, to pick up my car! I’ll have quite a bit of time to play with all the modes and buttons on the way home.

It’s a 2018 green/beige base model. Has about 21k on the clock and new tires. Color normally isn’t a deal for me but I’m happy to have found a green.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself, and maybe use this space for questions on the way. If anyone is in the Plano or Amarillo area (I plan to stay the night there) and wants to talk Clarity ins-and-outs, let me know.

Excited to join the club!
 
Bbeardb said:
Hi all! Soon to be new electric anything owner here. I’m flying out today, the day after thanksgiving, from Colorado to Plano, Texas, to pick up my car! I’ll have quite a bit of time to play with all the modes and buttons on the way home.

It’s a 2018 green/beige base model. Has about 21k on the clock and new tires. Color normally isn’t a deal for me but I’m happy to have found a green.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself, and maybe use this space for questions on the way. If anyone is in the Plano or Amarillo area (I plan to stay the night there) and wants to talk Clarity ins-and-outs, let me know.

Excited to join the club!
Click to expand...
If you are like 99% of the owners on this forum you won’t be playing with anything because the dealer will have forgotten to charge the car!

great car - you will love it. One suggestion is if you are using adaptive cruise control is to put the car in sport mode. Otherwise it takes too long to get back up to speed.
 
Are there no new ones left in CO? Doesn't CO have a $5000 rebate? What did you pay for the car before taxes?
 
Thanks everyone. The dealer said he plugged it in this morning. I hope so!

There haven’t been any new ones in CO for awhile. I was hoping to get a new one and use the credits to knock it down to used price. And I probably still should have, but oh well.

OTD will be around $25k I believe. Im in the Uber now to pick it up at the moment.


Electra said:
Are there no new ones left in CO? Doesn't CO have a $5000 rebate? What did you pay for the car before taxes?
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e are
 
Well, this car is pretty danged awesome so far. I’m still trying to figure out what the gauges are telling me. But that’ll come with time. I was hoping to read the book but I should hit the sack.

I have to say I’m really happy to have joined the clarity club!
 
I averaged 28-32mpg. Photo attached from early in the trip. Some observations after the full day driving

  • LKAS is awesome in major wind. 40mph cross winds for nearly the whole drive and I barley had to steer myself.
  • ACC is amazing as well. I hardly used my feet the whole time. That combined with LKAS made for a very confident driving experience.
  • No battery (2 bars) and crosswinds make for crap mileage. I got around 32mpg computer, 28mpg my calculations for the whole trip.
  • HV charging is worthless at high speeds. Much better at city speeds.
  • I have no idea what the center sweep display is trying to tell me, other than regen. Changing blue/white inner circle?
  • I suspect with full battery, Sport mode might actually be more efficient. Seems closer to pulse and glide than the smooth sailing of Econ.
  • The car did wonderful taking care of itself regardless the mode. Which is good if you ever have to loan it to someone.
  • Variable paddle regen is sweet.
 

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Bbeardb said:
HV charging is worthless at high speeds. Much better at city speeds.
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The manual recommends using HV charge at high speed, not city/stop and go traffic.

I’ve used it once at 70-80mph and it brought the charge up from 2 bars to 10 bars in 30 minutes.
 
Although the crosswinds must have made a significant impact, I'm curious about what speed were you averaging? Many here report drastic drops in economy when going 80+mph. I've seen anywhere from 38 to 42 mpg in my '18 Clarity base when driving in HV mode at speeds ~ 70mph.
 
Landshark said:
The manual recommends using HV charge at high speed, not city/stop and go traffic.

I’ve used it once at 70-80mph and it brought the charge up from 2 bars to 10 bars in 30 minutes.
Click to expand...

It doesn't mentions speed for HV charge, only for HV. 20+ minutes in one shot resulted in 1 bar. I tried multiple other times and got better, though not very useful, results when going slow or down a slight incline. It basically didn't work in a meaningful capacity for me.

Speaking of the manual, it seems rather useless to me. It spends more time explaining the seat-belt than car operation.
 
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Mowcowbell said:
Although the crosswinds must have made a significant impact, I'm curious about what speed were you averaging? Many here report drastic drops in economy when going 80+mph. I've seen anywhere from 38 to 42 mpg in my '18 Clarity base when driving in HV mode at speeds ~ 70mph.
Click to expand...

The majority of the trip was on highways and 65-75mph. The last ~160 mile leg was interstate doing 83. The winds, and possibly the 2-bar charge, really took its toll on efficiency.
 
Bbeardb said:
The majority of the trip was on highways and 65-75mph. The last ~160 mile leg was interstate doing 83. The winds, and possibly the 2-bar charge, really took its toll on efficiency.
Click to expand...
My longest road trip so far was a round trip drive from OKC to Dallas (430 miles round trip). It was in mid-summer with AC blasting the whole way. 70mph with a full battery charge in HV mode returned 42mpg. Only had to stop once for gas at Buc-ee's near the Texas Motor Speedway. Biggest convenience store I've ever seen... the lot was the size of a Super Wal-Mart.
 
Bbeardb said:
It doesn't mentions speed for HV charge, only for HV. 20+ minutes in one shot resulted in 1 bar. I tried multiple other times and got better, though not very useful, results when going slow or down a slight incline. It basically didn't work in a meaningful capacity for me.

Speaking of the manual, it seems rather useless to me. It spends more time explaining the seat-belt than car operation.
Click to expand...

You can find things more easily in the downloadable, searchable, PDF version of the Clarity Owners Manual. It says in the HV CHARGE section on page 17 (emphasis mine):

> The high voltage battery can be charged to 12 segments in after about 1 hour of high-speed driving.
> HV Charge is not recommended for city driving or other driving situations when you need to stop
> frequently or drive slowly. In these situations, press the HV button again to disable HV Charge. If you
> are in HV and approaching a destination where the vehicle can be charged, you can turn off HV and
> use the remaining battery power to drive.
 
insightman said:
You can find things more easily in the downloadable, searchable, PDF version of the Clarity Owners Manual. It says in the HV CHARGE section on page 17...
Click to expand...

Interesting. I must have an older revision manual and I’ll have to check out the link. Thank you

Whoa. Ok. Totally different and useful. I have the owners guide which I guess it different than the owners manual.
 
Last edited:
Bbeardb said:
Hi all! Soon to be new electric anything owner here. I’m flying out today, the day after thanksgiving, from Colorado to Plano, Texas, to pick up my car! I’ll have quite a bit of time to play with all the modes and buttons on the way home.

It’s a 2018 green/beige base model. Has about 21k on the clock and new tires. Color normally isn’t a deal for me but I’m happy to have found a green.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself, and maybe use this space for questions on the way. If anyone is in the Plano or Amarillo area (I plan to stay the night there) and wants to talk Clarity ins-and-outs, let me know.

Excited to join the club!
Click to expand...

This is a little late, but for future reference - If you are driving more than your EV range, drive in HV from the start of the trip. By doing this the battery is kept charged up and you have much more power to merge, pass and mountains. Only thing you have to remember is to put it in HV every time you turn off the car or it starts in EV and you will be down to 2 bars very quickly. Also, use the sport option with either EV or HV it really does not cut down the MPG and you get much better response when you want it.
 
Bbeardb said:
Interesting. I must have an older revision manual and I’ll have to check out the link. Thank you

Whoa. Ok. Totally different and useful. I have the owners guide which I guess it different than the owners manual.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how it works for second owners, but you may be able to order a glove-box sized paper version of the Clarity Owners Manual and the NAV Guide from https://owners.honda.com/login
 
Keep in mind there are two versions: an Owner's Guide and an Owner's Manual. The manual is much more detailed.
 
Bbeardb said:
Interesting. I must have an older revision manual and I’ll have to check out the link. Thank you

Whoa. Ok. Totally different and useful. I have the owners guide which I guess it different than the owners manual.
Click to expand...

Sorry to have missed your earlier posts over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I live near Plano and have driven a 2018 Clarity PHEV for about 18 months. If you want to talk Clarity sometime, PM me on the forum. Otherwise, I will do my best to monitor this thread in the future.
 
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