my wife has about a 80 mile to work and back should we just leave it on eco till it runs out and switch to hv when out or just leave it eco the whole time here is the way the route goes 45 to 55 mph roads with stop signs and lights maybe 10 mile then interstate for maybe 24 and then a couple mile to dest then back thanks came from a volt that was easy use ev then use gas.
What's the best mode to drive in
- Thread starter ckiz
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Groves Cooke
Active Member
There are several ways to drive this car. It's really your choice. Many here write that they start a drive like you describe in EV mode and then switch to HV mode when they get on the interstate. Then they switch back to EV when they get within range on the way back. Just remember that the default mode for the car when you start it up is EV mode,
Eco isn’t a Mode. The car will automatically go to HV Mode once EV range has been used. In other words, you don’t even need to “switch” to HV.
Higher speeds on the interstate will yield fewer EV miles than slower speeds. The interstate would be the place to use HV Mode. After rereading your remarkable sentence and adding my own punctuation marks, I’ve concluded that your wife has ~48 miles of freeway and 32 miles of secondary roads on her round trip. If the vehicle is being operated in temperatures above, 50-60F, it should be able to cover more than 32 miles in EV. In that case, it wouldn’t be necessary to drive the entire 48 freeway miles in HV, if one of your goals is to fully utilize EV range. She’ll have to experiment with the amount of miles driven in HV.
A number of owners prefer to engage “Sport”, whether in EV or HV, which provides peppy acceleration with less input. It also allows the paddle regen setting to stay set for the entire drive. Keep in mind, there is no way to “lock in” EV Mode. If sufficient acceleration is called for, the ICE will come on.
And, please consider adding a few periods in future posts.
Higher speeds on the interstate will yield fewer EV miles than slower speeds. The interstate would be the place to use HV Mode. After rereading your remarkable sentence and adding my own punctuation marks, I’ve concluded that your wife has ~48 miles of freeway and 32 miles of secondary roads on her round trip. If the vehicle is being operated in temperatures above, 50-60F, it should be able to cover more than 32 miles in EV. In that case, it wouldn’t be necessary to drive the entire 48 freeway miles in HV, if one of your goals is to fully utilize EV range. She’ll have to experiment with the amount of miles driven in HV.
A number of owners prefer to engage “Sport”, whether in EV or HV, which provides peppy acceleration with less input. It also allows the paddle regen setting to stay set for the entire drive. Keep in mind, there is no way to “lock in” EV Mode. If sufficient acceleration is called for, the ICE will come on.
And, please consider adding a few periods in future posts.
There is a simple way to keep the Clarity running on battery power without activating the engine. There is a "click point" in the travel of the accelerator pedal that many Clarity drivers don't discover right away. They press the pedal until it feels like it's floored, not realizing that if they press harder the pedal will go further. If you select ECON Mode, the Clarity will run on electric power only unless you press the pedal through the click point. The click point is not meaningful in NORMAL and SPORT Modes because the engine starts up before the accelerator pedal reaches the click point.
As @Landshark explained, once the battery charge is exhausted (2 bars on the instrument panel) from driving on EV, the Clarity automatically switches to HV. Then the Clarity car behaves like a regular old hybrid car, using both the engine and motor as it sees fit to maximize fuel efficiency. That switch from EV to HV happens in all three modes: ECON, NORMAL, and SPORT.
Note that flooring the accelerator (pressing through the click point) provides the same acceleration in ECON Mode or NORMAL Mode as in SPORT Mode. SPORT and NORMAL Modes feel faster than ECON Mode because they give you more acceleration earlier in the travel of the accelerator pedal than ECON Mode.
I leave our Clarity in ECON Mode to make it easy to keep the engine from starting up (just one trip to the gas station this year when we didn't go far). I've claimed for years that SPORT mode leads to smoking and drinking
.
As @Landshark explained, once the battery charge is exhausted (2 bars on the instrument panel) from driving on EV, the Clarity automatically switches to HV. Then the Clarity car behaves like a regular old hybrid car, using both the engine and motor as it sees fit to maximize fuel efficiency. That switch from EV to HV happens in all three modes: ECON, NORMAL, and SPORT.
Note that flooring the accelerator (pressing through the click point) provides the same acceleration in ECON Mode or NORMAL Mode as in SPORT Mode. SPORT and NORMAL Modes feel faster than ECON Mode because they give you more acceleration earlier in the travel of the accelerator pedal than ECON Mode.
I leave our Clarity in ECON Mode to make it easy to keep the engine from starting up (just one trip to the gas station this year when we didn't go far). I've claimed for years that SPORT mode leads to smoking and drinking
.
turtleturtle
Active Member
This I did not know. Do we know specifics on what it does?
The Gadgeteer
Active Member
The click point resistance is pronounced enough sometimes people think they are “flooring it” when in fact they are only at the click point.
Which in my opinion is a good thing!