Should I force the Clarity to run on gas in extreme cold condition?

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bigbug

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It's been around -20 ~ 25c for the past few days in my area. I think it may benefit the battery if the car runs on gas under extreme cold weather, but am not 100% sure. What do you guys think?
 
When it's around 0 F or -17c the ICE will start on it's own. It seems to run at relatively low RPM if the battery is charged and in the HV mode.
 
I found I needed to rev the engine to get the engine going so that the heater would melt the ice on the windshield not that is has been ~5F outside. Just using the battery was too weak to melt it .
 
BobS said:
When it's around 0 F or -17c the ICE will start on it's own. It seems to run at relatively low RPM if the battery is charged and in the HV mode.
Click to expand...

Observation of today (-22 C in the morning)

I generally do NOT use cabin heat (I am still on gas from Aug 16th) - only the seat warmer but today was just a touch too cool

- so preheated car; fully charged and after about 5 min driving turned on heat.. was surprised that the EV range didn't change
- no indication ICE had turned on except the gas range reduced and when I looked at Vehicle info - energy - there was the ICE 'beavering' away......

later in the day the same thing occurred.... so, yes, if it is cold enough and you ask for heat -
the ICE gives (it turns off after a while and then the EV supplies the heat)

Question - I did not see any indication the ICE was running on the main dashboard display?
 
JohnT said:
Observation of today (-22 C in the morning)

I generally do NOT use cabin heat (I am still on gas from Aug 16th) - only the seat warmer but today was just a touch too cool

- so preheated car; fully charged and after about 5 min driving turned on heat.. was surprised that the EV range didn't change
- no indication ICE had turned on except the gas range reduced and when I looked at Vehicle info - energy - there was the ICE 'beavering' away......

later in the day the same thing occurred.... so, yes, if it is cold enough and you ask for heat -
the ICE gives (it turns off after a while and then the EV supplies the heat)

Question - I did not see any indication the ICE was running on the main dashboard display?
Click to expand...

Same here with temps at -22C with wind chills saying -32C. I did not have a preheated car and it wasn't plugged in, and I did notice ICE turn on and stayed on for the most part. Once EV started showing up, the ICE turned off and on frequently. Once I reached a certain point EV turned back on and ICe stayed off, but my EV range was WAAAY off. I wasn't on a full battery so I showed 32KM left and I did ~19-20km trip and ran out of range about 4km from my destination.

I kept my temp at 15.5C and seat warmer was turned off part way through my trip.
 
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