Zero Battery

[Viking79]

Assuming that Jorgie393 left the clarity running at the airport, does anyone know what the car will actually do if it is running in EV while parked, and depletes down to the 0 miles EV level? While driving, I know that the ICE will start. That has worried me in the context of potentially leaving it running in a closed area, and the risk of carbon monoxide accumulation, let alone depletion of all of the gas in the tank.

Before a software update, the early Chevy Volt would drain the HV battery, start the engine, drain the gas tank, as you would expect a gas car to do if you left it running. After an update, the Volt would turn off after 2 hours in park.

The Clarity has a gas engine that can start any time, treat it as such. Modern PZEV cars have very minimal CO output once warmed up, but I would still treat it as producing enough CO to be poisonous. I am not sure what Clarity does if left running.

 

[jorgie393]

For the OP:

Just now,again, I had a false 0% charge reported by Hondalink. Nothing special going on, just was trying to turn on preconditioning before going to the garage.

After a refresh or two, and hitting “turn on” climate, it showed the (real) 60%.

Hopefully this is all that is going on with yours.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

[Mark W]

Yeah, I would think it's much more likely that the Honda app is wrong than the car was left on.

 

[neal adkins]

The car couldn't have been left on. The gas motor would have started and prevented the battery from reaching zero soc so quickly since you had plenty of gas. Theres not much draw on the main battery pack at idol. I would try starting climate control and see if you are actually linked.

 

[Savido]

Thanks for all of your ideas. I am back from my six day trip. It was a Honda Link issue as Bob S. mentioned above.

The Honda Link showed zero battery when in fact I had 81% battery life remaining - the expected amount. I did turn off the ignition. After driving home and checking the Honda Link again, it registered the expected amounts of gas and electric range.

I do not know what happened. When away the Link did show the correct gas range but indicated zero battery power. The accurate gas tank reading was one factor that led me to believe the zero battery range was correct.

All is well. The experience taught me a few lessons even though everything worked out fine.

Thanks again for your many comments.

 

[MNSteve]

Thanks for all of your ideas. I am back from my six day trip. It was a Honda Link issue as Bob S. mentioned above.

Thank you for the update. Glad everything turned out fine, and I consider this a learning experience for all of us.

 

[MPower]

Thanks, Savido, for starting this thread. I will be very helpful for me to avoid panicking the first time I leave my Clarity parked at the airport for a long trip and HomeLink tells me I have no juice.

 

[JustAnotherPoorDriver]

The car couldn't have been left on. The gas motor would have started and prevented the battery from reaching zero soc so quickly since you had plenty of gas. Theres not much draw on the main battery pack at idol. I would try starting climate control and see if you are actually linked.

Possibly not. On the Clarity Facebook group, we're discussing a case where the valet at the airport seems to have left the car on, and it fully drained to zero EV. It did not seem to start the gas engine. Perhaps this was a design decision by Honda....

 

[insightman]

Possibly not. On the Clarity Facebook group, we're discussing a case where the valet at the airport seems to have left the car on, and it fully drained to zero EV. It did not seem to start the gas engine. Perhaps this was a design decision by Honda....

Honda saw the trouble Chevy got into when Volts would start their engines in the middle of the night and fill attached garages with carbon monoxide. Chevy came up with a patch for that.

 

[AlanSqB]

I have had Walt's experience exactly with my previous Priuses. I have flattened the battery exactly as he describes, by leaving on the map light. Since I have had the Clarity, I have touched the Park button maybe once or twice when I got the message that the charging door was open and I just put it in Park and hopped out to close the door or paused to pick up my carpool at the park and ride. Otherwise I just press the power button to the car off.

I think it might take longer to drain the Clarity 12v with the map light because it seems to be an LED which the Prius's was not.

FYI there is no need to put it in park. If you open up the driver side door to hop out, the car will put itself in park. Nice when you jump out to grab the mail. Irritating when you are trying to open the door to see the lines in a tricky parking spot.

 

[Mad_River]

Even if it were at 0% it still has plenty of juice to start the ICE. The car protects the battery and shows 0% EV when like 17% (I don't remember exact %) of total battery remains.