PHEVs are the hot new thing. How about Honda introducing an updated Clarity?

[Landshark]

Hyundai makes a Tucson Plug-in Hybrid, but after @TC1782's post above, I wonder if it's any good?

I wonder if the Santa Fe is as bad as the reviewers Clarity?

 

[TC1782]

Hyundai makes a Tucson Plug-in Hybrid, but after @TC1782's post above, I wonder if it's any good?

The Toyota RAV4 Prime and Prius Prime are good plug-in hybrids, but the very quick RAV4 Prime is always in short supply and the Prius Prime is smaller than our Claritys.

BMW makes plug-in hybrids, too, but at $72K, the least expensive one is double the cost of our Clarity.

One forum member is a fan of the upcoming 2025 Ram Ramcharger 1500 pickup, which will be an interesting plug-in serial hybrid--if the beleagured Stellantis can manage to stay in business.

I wonder if the Santa Fe is as bad as the reviewers Clarity?

After you buy it, and a few years after, almost certainly better. After that, I would be surprised if it was better. Reason why is because it's using a 1.6l turbo (and Hyundai turbo engines aren't that reliable), and on top of that it's using some weird belt alternator starter (getting a smooth engine start with a parallel hybrid can be hard, hyundai basically decided it would be easier to slap a BAS on to eliminate the problem. Thing with BAS systems is they are relying on a belt to deliver alot of torque. Kind of iffy), alongside a 6 speed automatic (really a neutral point with the automatic, an ecvt has less failure points, time will tell how reliable it's automatic is). One thing not reliability related about the Santa fe phev I don't like the the electric motor is only 90hp, so for around town that would be fine most of the time, trouble is when your merging at high speeds, that's when you would really need more power.

 

[Dan Albrich]

For the moment, very happy with my Clarity and plan to keep it as long as I can. I actually know nothing about the Santa Fe (and see they do still sell Tucson PHEV). I just mean to say that when the time comes, I'll look at available PHEVs and choose from whatever is the best value PHEV.

 

[Steve93]

Really? The current Prius prime is a better car in almost every way, and has comparable ev range.

I totally disagree on this. The specs of the 2024 Prius Prime is 44 miles on battery or if you got mid or top tier, you lose range and it’s only 39 miles on the battery (remember that EPA numbers so expect it to be even lower than stated). With the Clarity, I have a 2018 model, and I get 44 miles real world on the battery. I only have 34k miles on my car.

Also the Prius is obviously smaller in size than a Clarity, and the charging rate is HUGE. Prius tops out at 3.3kWh where as the Clarity can do double at 6.6kWh max. That means it take double the time to charge a Prius than the Clarity for equivalent range.

It really is true that the Clarity is still the best PHEV on the market with the exception of the Toyota RAV4 Prime but those are extremely hard to find and even when you do find them, the dealerships are trying to sell them above MSRP (which I refuse to play that kind of game)

 

[TC1782]

I totally disagree on this. The specs of the 2024 Prius Prime is 44 miles on battery or if you got mid or top tier, you lose range and it’s only 39 miles on the battery (remember that EPA numbers so expect it to be even lower than stated). With the Clarity, I have a 2018 model, and I get 44 miles real world on the battery. I only have 34k miles on my car.

Also the Prius is obviously smaller in size than a Clarity, and the charging rate is HUGE. Prius tops out at 3.3kWh where as the Clarity can do double at 6.6kWh max. That means it take double the time to charge a Prius than the Clarity for equivalent range.

It really is true that the Clarity is still the best PHEV on the market with the exception of the Toyota RAV4 Prime but those are extremely hard to find and even when you do find them, the dealerships are trying to sell them above MSRP (which I refuse to play that kind of game)

Not really sure why charging speed would matter for a phev, but the current Prius prime can do 6.6kw. For something that's already on the market, the clarity *might* be the best, but if you can get your hands on a new Prius prime (and to a lesser extent RAV4), the clarity looses imo. I'm getting about 38 miles (45 originally), I consider the range of the Prius prime and clarity about equivalent. The ONLY thing that I consider to be a drawback of the current Prius prime is that the battery isn't water cooled, but that is just a technology detail.