Now at 82 Mile Range

[Fast Eddie B]

The most estimated EV range I’ve seen is 61. Weirdly, it was right after a full charge after doing at least 9 full throttle runs using the ICE in various modes to determine if different modes had any effect on full throttle acceleration (they don’t seem to). I had been braced for a low EV range prediction after such shenanigans, so it struck me as odd - and maybe a bug in Honda’s EV range prediction algorithm.

Back on point, we’re seeing 48 to 55 miles of predicted EV range this summer.

 

[Landshark]

The way I read post #8 is that he mentioned four things that would effect EV range:

"there's a fair number of roads where the speed limit is 25 and I usually don't exceed limits by more than 5." (probably the single biggest factor)

"No on flat, CT is hilly." (can affect range but would need more details)

"mainly doing errands within about a 10 mile radius." (this explains the very low speed limits)

"driving as often as possible in Sport with max regen. Then I try to drive without using the brakes at all except that last 6 mph." (self explanatory)

This was in addition to what he said in post #1:

"daily high temperatures are now in the seventies." (very little AC or heat needed)



He uses HV on the highway, and switches back to EV when exiting the highway. What he said in post #18 is that he realized after thinking about it that he turns on HV about a half mile before the entrance and needs to deduct that from the EV range.

"On this charge cycle I made two highway round trips, so 4 get off the highway events, and each one probably is worth 1 mile I estimate."

So yeah 82 is totally bogus dude. He really probably only got around 78.

The way I read post #8 is that he mentioned four things that would effect EV range:

"there's a fair number of roads where the speed limit is 25 and I usually don't exceed limits by more than 5." (probably the single biggest factor)

"No on flat, CT is hilly." (can affect range but would need more details)

"mainly doing errands within about a 10 mile radius." (this explains the very low speed limits)

"driving as often as possible in Sport with max regen. Then I try to drive without using the brakes at all except that last 6 mph." (self explanatory)

This was in addition to what he said in post #1:

"daily high temperatures are now in the seventies." (very little AC or heat needed)



He uses HV on the highway, and switches back to EV when exiting the highway. What he said in post #18 is that he realized after thinking about it that he turns on HV about a half mile before the entrance and needs to deduct that from the EV range.

"On this charge cycle I made two highway round trips, so 4 get off the highway events, and each one probably is worth 1 mile I estimate."

So yeah 82 is totally bogus dude. He really probably only got around 78.

For the record, I suggested the claim was invalid due to the use of HV mode while accelerating on freeway ramps and the use of Sport mode, which may or may not employ the ICE engine. So spare me the condescension.

There also seems to be a great deal of guessing on exactly how many miles were driven in EV mode due to switching modes during travel.

 

[Landshark]

Many members of this forum use SPORT Mode but have precise control of their ankle muscles so that they don't activate the ICE. Only in ECON Mode can you use the accelerator pedal "click" to separate EV and ICE operation, but in NORMAL and SPORT Modes you can watch the POWER/CHARGE Gauge to show you when the ICE will activate. HV (Honda doesn't call it a "mode," probably to distinguish it from ECON, NORMAL and SPORT Modes) usually does start the ICE, but it's not unusual for HV to turn off the ICE once in a while (and light the EV led) in it's wonderfully mysterious, artificial-intelligence-driven operation.

For advanced study, you can get into the underlying modes (EV Drive, Hybrid Drive, and Engine Drive) the Clarity PHEV uses to implement the 3 user-selectable modes and HV and HV CHARGE.

Thank you for actually answering my question.

 

[Hoon]

When I got 65 miles on EV, I actually got 63 miles on trip A (set to auto reset on every plug-in event) plus 2 miles estimated EV miles remaining.

I drive Sport mode with max regen set, have good control of my ankle, try not to fluctuate between regeneration, never trigger ICE unless it kicks in for maintenance mode. Temperature was 70’s, no AC. New car with less than 1000 miles.

It’s pretty easy to track EV range if you don’t use HV mode.

 

[Landshark]

I’ve achieved mileage above Honda’s stated 47 as well. 55 on 2 occasions, strictly on EV, before the car switched to HV and 46 with 16 remaining under the same conditions.

Yesterday I covered 6 miles in rush hour traffic and the remaining EV range fluctuated between 14.5-15.5. The last 12 miles of the trip, including the 6 in stop and go traffic, were covered with the loss of only 4 miles of displayed EV range. This car loves rush hour.

 

[2002]

For the record, I suggested the claim was invalid due to the use of HV mode while accelerating on freeway ramps and the use of Sport mode, which may or may not employ the ICE engine. So spare me the condescension.

Sorry I didn't intend to be condescending by quoting parts of the OP's post that I felt weren't seeming to be acknowledged. I apologize if it came off that way. Your post came off as if the OP's later realization that they needed to factor in 0.5 mile of HV warmup when getting on the highway invalidated their claim of 82 miles EV. Perhaps invalidate was too strong a word on your part, or maybe I took it the wrong way as implying that the claim never happened.

What I think is interesting is the OP saw 82 miles estimated EV range one time, and other cases of 70 plus estimated EV range, and rather than being a glitch as we would normally expect he provided some details about the driving conditions that could lead to those numbers being realistic. Although as he pointed out he didn't actually check the actual EV miles since that's hard to do when it's a combination of HV and EV so he only reported what the estimate EV range was after charging.

 

[Landshark]

Sorry I didn't intend to be condescending by quoting parts of the OP's post that I felt weren't seeming to be acknowledged. I apologize if it came off that way. Your post came off as if the OP's later realization that they needed to factor in 0.5 mile of HV warmup when getting on the highway invalidated their claim of 82 miles EV. Perhaps invalidate was too strong a word on your part, or maybe I took it the wrong way as implying that the claim never happened.

What I think is interesting is the OP saw 82 miles estimated EV range one time, and other cases of 70 plus estimated EV range, and rather than being a glitch as we would normally expect he provided some details about the driving conditions that could lead to those numbers being realistic. Although as he pointed out he didn't actually check the actual EV miles since that's hard to do when it's a combination of HV and EV so he only reported what the estimate EV range was after charging.

What came across as condescending was your “... totally bogus dude.” statement, which appeared to be a sentence you composed on your own.

The OP has clarified that the 82 miles was only an estimate shown on the display. I maintain that even the claim of 75 miles is invalid or questionable or just a wild guess.

The OP stated that he used HV to accelerate. He also said he switched from HV to EV when exiting the freeway to take advantage of regeneration on a presumably down hill off ramp. How many miles did he travel on the freeway in HV mode?

It is great that we are sharing our experiences of achieving greater range than the manufacturer stated. We can all learn from the driving techniques of others. In my opinion, using HV for portions of the drive that are known to rapidly diminish EV range, produces inaccurate figures.

 

[coutinpe]

So following Landshark's suggestion, today I dared to make a 53.8 mile (per the trip monitor) round trip mostly freeway in pure EV-Econ mode (The green 'EV' was lit all the time). Since it was rush hour there was quite some traffic so my top speed was 68 mph and most of the time I was between 60 and 65. When back home I had a GOM estimated EV range of 3.5 miles. I must disclose that I had a steep hill that produced a sizeable amount of downhill regeneration at the last part of the trip, but it was the same hill I climbed at the beginning (for which I usually switched HV on), so the net effect of climbing/coasting down should be zero. Bottom line, at least they way I drove yielded a significantly longer EV range than the 47 EV miles per specs. Believing what the GOM reports as remaining range, 53.8+3.5=57.3! I wonder how much would I have done on that trip with a Volt...

 

[Landshark]

57.3 is definitely achievable. I managed 59.0 on Tuesday with 0.0 EV range remaining and 2 bars on the battery gauge.

The morning commute was very slow. It took almost 1:30 to travel 31 miles. The return took :45.

For most of the trip I monitored the display that shows where power is generated to confirm that the ICE did not start.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

I must disclose that I had a steep hill that produced a sizeable amount of downhill regeneration at the last part of the trip, but it was the same hill I climbed at the beginning (for which I usually switched HV on), so the net effect of climbing/coasting down should be zero.

While you certainly get back a substantial portion of the energy used going uphill when you subsequently descend, I don’t think it ever quite “zeroes out”, due to losses in the discharge/charge cycles involved - best mileage will be on level ground, all things being equal.

 

[Wdave]

And I'm alone here in my corner not cracking 40 E-miles

 

[Kerbe]

And I'm alone here in my corner not cracking 40 E-miles

Nope - I was at 40 for the first month and am now at 45... You are not alone!

 

[Wdave]

Nope - I was at 40 for the first month and am now at 45... You are not alone!

I've had the car for a year, from low 20s in mid Jan to the highest of like 43 in April. I gotta get a battery test done

 

[coutinpe]

I've had the car for a year, from low 20s in mid Jan to the highest of like 43 in April. I gotta get a battery test done

The significant negative effect of low winter temperatures on EV range has been well documented here but I wonder about how variations within mid-range temperatures also affect EV range. A scientific-minded guy with time to spare should do a temperature/EV range curve spanning from the low 20s to 110's. But I reckon that is unlikely without traveling very long distances and spending a lot of time to do the measurements. Or maybe some of the most illustrated fellows here already has that data?

 

[coutinpe]

57.3 is definitely achievable. I managed 59.0 on Tuesday with 0.0 EV range remaining and 2 bars on the battery gauge.

The morning commute was very slow. It took almost 1:30 to travel 31 miles. The return took :45.

For most of the trip I monitored the display that shows where power is generated to confirm that the ICE did not start.

Same as I did to make sure I wasn't comparing oranges to apples. However, I think I saw somewhere else that there is indeed some discrepancy between the G-O-M and the bar gauge, the latter being the more reliable. Today I tried another G-O-M experiment on the same 53.8 mile route, this time running all the time on HV to see the range behavior. I left with 57.8 EV range and 338 HV, returned with 56.7 EV and 301 HV. Hence, I spent 37 "GOM HV range miles" + 1.1 GOM EV range miles to cover 53.8 miles, which gave me a "bonus" of 15.7 miles. The gas bar went down one notch, the EV bar is pristine full. Still trying to make some sense of it all...

 

[coutinpe]

While you certainly get back a substantial portion of the energy used going uphill when you subsequently descend, I don’t think it ever quite “zeroes out”, due to losses in the discharge/charge cycles involved - best mileage will be on level ground, all things being equal.

That is absolutely true. Obviously one doesn't get back to the garage with the same EV range one left even if going all the way uphill and then back downhill.

 

[Hoon]

As for the EV range, this should help clarifying a lot of the guesses. 20-40 MPH is where you get best range. I’m guessing about 10 mi/div for y-axis, roughly 55 miles max at 30 MPH. When you drive at 65 MPH the range drops to about 37 miles. That’s a drastic drop, but not enough to justify switching to HV if you can make it with plenty of charge left. If driving at 65 MPH for 40 miles both way, then I’d actively use HV mode to also reduce depth-of-discharge on the battery.

I’m still getting about 62 miles ev range but my commute is 30-45 MPH with ambient temperature 60-80F and my car only has 1200 miles on ODO.

AER (all electric range).
Screen capture from a paper publication “Development of Electric Powertrain for CLARITY”.

 

[Phil_Meyers]

We're on hills and freeways, so I doubt we'll see anything above low 40's. As indicated in the post above, pushing air out of the way takes a lot of energy therefore higher speeds will kill the range.

 

[Landshark]

The significant negative effect of low winter temperatures on EV range has been well documented here but I wonder about how variations within mid-range temperatures also affect EV range. A scientific-minded guy with time to spare should do a temperature/EV range curve spanning from the low 20s to 110's. But I reckon that is unlikely without traveling very long distances and spending a lot of time to do the measurements. Or maybe some of the most illustrated fellows here already has that data?

Honda provided a graph in a linked document on one of these threads that showed the battery remained below its maximum safe temperature while being put to use in 104 degree temps for 2 1/2 hours. That’s the cooling system at work.

What would be interesting is if a battery warming system could be beneficial when charging in colder temperatures.

I’ve been operating in temps from 60-100 for the past month. Displayed EV range after charging has been consistently near 62. That’s probably the Goldilocks zone.

 

[MPower]

What would be interesting is if a battery warming system could be beneficial when charging in colder temperatures.

The Canadian Clarity has battery warming, but those of us in the higher US latitudes do not.