No One Has Ever Heard of This Car

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It was interesting at the National Drive Electric Week, where you'd expect attendees to be up on their electric car options, more people had heard of the Clarity Fuel Cell (possibly because it's ground-breaking) and the Clarity Electric (possibly because of its 89-mile range), than the most versatile of the Clarity trio, the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid.

I wish Honda would issue sales figures for the Clarity cars separately instead of lumping them all together. After all, the Plug-In Hybrid is the only one of the trio people can actually purchase.
 
It's going to be hard to trade this car or even sell it considering its saving me 2k a year . I think I will give it to my kids in 11 years when they get their license...assuming nothing major goes :)
 
Reading through this thread can't agree more. I had no idea what the Clarity was up until about 3 weeks ago. I was going for the Volt and just decided to browse every major car manufacturers website to see what they offered comparable to the Volt and that is how I found this great car.

It amazes me, in general, the lack of general knowledge of EV and PHEV vehicles as a whole though. Explaining everything to my wife took a little bit of time but when she saw some of the videos I was watching online about the gas savings she was on board, but basically, everyone we work with, or who are in our family have no idea what a PHEV is. I have so far had to correct about 20 people that our car has both electric and gas and that we will not just randomly break down on a highway :)
 
I am meticulous planner and had done extensive research on accord and CRV and was test driving those when I saw clarity at the dealer.
Was never looking to buy PHEV and never done any research on it but was attracted to it. Basically the size and the gas mileage ... was more like a civic which I loved ( '90s models). Did some reading and landed up buying the car in 2 weeks.
 
JKroll said:
I am meticulous planner and had done extensive research on accord and CRV and was test driving those when I saw clarity at the dealer.
Was never looking to buy PHEV and never done any research on it but was attracted to it. Basically the size and the gas mileage ... was more like a civic which I loved ( '90s models). Did some reading and landed up buying the car in 2 weeks.
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A very similar story for me, however, I was in the market for the PHEV, just thought no matter I was walking out the door with the Volt. Spent 2 weeks+ researching the Volt inside and out, and then tossed all of that out the window when I found the Clarity haha.
 
I've mentioned my interest in this car to a few people and only one person, who used to lease a Fusion PHEV, knew what it was. The rest have no idea and I basically say "It's like an Accord". As for price, with discounts and tax incentives, I see this coming in around the price of a new Insight, not a Civic.
 
Still, nearly 4 years after the Clarity PHEV arrived, almost no one--including many car-cognizant people--has ever heard of it. Will it become a trivia-contest answer or just fade completely from automotive memories? I'd love to know if the honchos in Japan think it was a success, a failure, or just a project that achieved its goals.

I picked this thread to revive after just seeing this ad for the Hyundai Santa Fe Plug-In Hybrid on TV and thought Honda could have made much cleverer ads for the Clarity than the dense concept-ad they ran on TV a few times when the car was introduced. Unlike Honda, Hyundai believes their PHEV is worth marketing.

While searching YouTube for the original Clarity ad, I found this Spanish-language Clarity PHEV ad that clearly cost a lot of bucks for CGI, but has fewer than 400 views. Did Honda run this Spanish-language ad on TV in the US? I don't believe the Clarity PHEV was sold in any Spanish-speaking countries. It was sold only in the US, Canada, and Japan (with extra features, including DC charging) right?

Such a great car, the Clarity PHEV deserves a fate better than automotive anonymity.
 
insightman said:
Still, nearly 4 years after the Clarity PHEV arrived, almost no one--including many car-cognizant people--has ever heard of it. Will it become a trivia-contest answer or just fade completely from automotive memories? I'd love to know if the honchos in Japan think it was a success, a failure, or just a project that achieved its goals.

I picked this thread to revive after just seeing this ad for the Hyundai Santa Fe Plug-In Hybrid on TV and thought Honda could have made much cleverer ads for the Clarity than the dense concept-ad they ran on TV a few times when the car was introduced. Unlike Honda, Hyundai believes their PHEV is worth marketing.

While searching YouTube for the original Clarity ad, I found this Spanish-language Clarity PHEV ad that clearly cost a lot of bucks for CGI, but has fewer than 400 views. Did Honda run this Spanish-language ad on TV in the US? I don't believe the Clarity PHEV was sold in any Spanish-speaking countries. It was sold only in the US, Canada, and Japan (with extra features, including DC charging) right?

Such a great car, the Clarity PHEV deserves a fate better than automotive anonymity.
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Can't agree more! As I've been saying all along, this car has had virtually ZERO advertising from Honda. I was looking for a PHEV at the 2018 LA auto show and immediately fell in love with it, discarding the Fusion Energi, Prius Prime, Ioniq etc. After moving to Vegas from LA in January I haven't seen one anymore. Several people here had stopped me to ask what kind of car was that. Some people said here at the forum that PHEVs were on their way out and the demise of the Volt and then the Clarity was a sign of that. However, there are several new PHEV coming along, even from Lexus and Mazda! I still fail to understand why Honda even bothered creating this magnificent car if they had no actual intention of selling it.
 
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