I bought my new 2018 Clarity Plugin at end of December.
I am retired and live fairly close to all of Tucson. I have about 1200 miles, all on local driving.
All of the driving has been EV. WE have solar panels that used to produce more than we used.

We have an RV Motor home for our distance travel.

My gas tank was full when I drove out of dealer and still shows full.

I expect to drive locally for abot 6000 miles a year. That means almost no gas usage, all EV driving.

What should I do? How much gas to keep in tank? Does gas need to run so often to keep car in good shape and use up gas before it gets stale.
I would appreciate any advice. Thanks Fred Dunfey

I would try to use a tank of gas once a year.

Considering the fuel tank is pressurized, I would say that if the car "needs" to run the ICE, it will do so automatically as it has happened to me.
I understand it will automatically switch on the ICE and run for a bit, using less than 0.07 gallons of fuel.

The car was designed by engineers, made in Japan, and therefore "smart enough" to switch on the ICE to keep the parts lubricated.

In your case, even with all EV miles and the engine not turning on much, once you reach the 1 year mark, expect an oil change as the super light 0-20W oil will need to be replaced due to natural contamination and breakdown....
Don't get upset over an oil change on the Clarity even with zero ICE miles....

If available in your area, I would recommend putting only 100% gasoline in your Clarity. Ethanol tends to play havoc to small engines when it sits unused for months at a time, and it is unknown what it will do long term sitting in the Clarity's fuel tank. I'm sure the pressurized tank does help to an extent, but I plan on using 100% gas in my Clarity when I purchase it.

I also make a 120+ mile trip every 2 weeks to visit family, so I will be using HV mode on those trips to give the gas engine a good workout.

I would try to use gas occasionally and cycle in some fresh gas every so often.

I am always surprised at all the people who buy a PHEV with 55 mile or less electric range that never want to use gas. Using some gas from time to time is probably a good thing to keep things in proper working order.

Personally I regularly exceed the electric range especially in winter weather when the range is in the 30’s.

Why does it surprise you that a person owning a car would want options? Options like driving further than as low as 88 miles per full charge in an all electric vehicle.




I purchased a clarity Hybrid to replace my Fiat 500e. I don't drive more than 45 miles round trip on a regular basis, but when the wife calls and says "go pick up the kids" that takes me way out of my normal driving range - basically I had to have advanced notice with time to charge my car at work prior to going to do a simple task that a regular gas car driver wouldn't have to think twice about.


That's not a problem now with my Clarity Hybrid. I charge at home, and the last time I put gas in my car was two weeks ago, as of this morning I'm still at full bars for gas.

The car is "smart" and knows when it needs to cycle gasoline...so you don't have to worry about it.

There are people who go months without running the engine and there are those that get upset whenever the engine kicks in.

As a former mechanic in a dealership I have seen new cars sit on a lot for almost a year and used cars sit for more than a year and there have been no problems that I saw with them. Gas is truly different now but valves, pistons, cam bearing, rod bearings, and crank bearings are probably pretty close to the same (guessing here). I would also agree that I would not put ethanol in the tank if it wasn't going to be used. I would likely keep the fuel in the tank low and use it enough so that you cycle it through. I do have friends who work on small engines and they cuss gas today and blame it for much of the running problems of lawn mowers, weed eaters, etc.

To the OP, once your Clarity runs this tank out, just put three gallons back in. You're not using the gas and hopefully the car will eventually burn through the gas to prevent stale gas related issues, so why put more in than you'll use in that time period.