I understand that the I.C.E. will run occasionally. Every night I charge the car using a 32 KW Siemens Versicharge. Every morning within a mile of my home the I.C.E. comes on and will run until I reach my destination and park the car for at least 10 minutes. Turning off the car and restarting it right away has no impact. I went to my selling dealer (Norm Reeves Honda in Irvine CA) and they said the computer does not show any faults. I called American Honda as instructed by my service rep. They could not have been less helpful and more dismissive (must have been trained by an airline's customer service department). They told me to take it to another dealer for a second opinion. I will do that but the second dealer is only going to read the same codes via the OBD2 port.

FRUSTRATED!! Anybody else with a similar experience and information.

First question, and this is important because apparently some of the early Clarities had problems with non-Honda EVSEs: Does your car show the battery fully charged in the morning? If the answer is yes then I'd start looking for a different Honda dealership since the one you tried is clueless about the Clarity.

I have had the same experience, but only occasionally. I wish I had some helpful information to pass on, but I'm glad to see that I am not the only one. This is one point of frustration I am experiencing because Honda really has not explained well how this car functions.

Hi be sure the car is set to EV mode. It is supposed to default to EV mode on start up. The button on the left on the console. Make sure the battery is charged up. Do not press the throttle all the way to the floor this starts the ICE no matter what mode you are in. If the ICE is running you can switch to EV mode on the fly to turn it off as long as the battery has sufficient charge. If you have only two bars of battery the ICE will start and stop as if you were in HV mode.

Do you mean "Econ" mode? The Clarity PHEV doesn't have an "EV" button as it defaults to EV if the traction battery has sufficient charge. You can use the the Econ, Sport and HV buttons to map where the "click point" on the throttle will be - the ICE engages when that point is passed. Up until that point - no matter the mode - the ICE should not engage (unless the Clarity decides it needs extra power to climb a hill).

Sorry to be a buzz-kill but, unlike some other PHEVs, Clarity can not be set by the driver to run as an EV only.

Okay, with my Clarity, the ICE comes on if I have the A/C or Heater going. Also if you have it in EV mode, I think in order to save electricity (because that's what EV mode is for), I believe the ICE may come on then as well. If neither the A/C or Heater nor EV is on, you should just be using Electricity going less than 45 mpg (which also may trigger the ICE to come on). This is my understanding. We are all learning on these PHEV's... Do love my car!

Ok to clarify yes the econ button turns on and off econ mode. ( Econ mode limits throttle response, heating and cooling to conserve battery life) It also assures the car is not in Sport, HV, or HV charge mode. I can drive my car aprox 45 miles on pure electric the ICE never starts until two bars are left on the battery. This is at speeds up to 75 mph with the air or heat blasting. We have gone for months without ever going to the gas station. Are you sure the car is fully charged?

Do you have a downhill slope within a mile of your house? When the battery is full it is not able to do regenerative braking because it has nowhere to store the generated electricity. This means it can only use friction braking (the brake pads) or engine braking to maintain speed during the descent. However to use engine braking it has to turn on the engine (we're not sure why, there are different theories about this). And once the engine is turned on it has to run for several minutes to warm up, this is an emissions requirement. If you don't have a downhill slope, the same thing can happen when stopping at a stop sign or signal light if it causes you to do a lot of regenerating when the battery is full.

Some people solve this by not fully charging the car, which some believe is healthier for the battery anyway. Or if the drive will be partly in HV, then go ahead and start in HV since the engine will come on anyway, then when you are on a stretch of level road where you won't need to slow down then switch to EV, this will use up some EV charge and should keep the engine from coming on the next time you regenerate.

However in any case the engine should only stay on long enough to warm up. You didn't say how far you are driving. If ICE is still running thirty minutes after you have left the house then something is wrong. Also you didn't mention if you have this problem at other times, or only when you leave your house.

If you press the gas pedal more than 60%-70% it will engage the ICE for added power. Once the ICE is engaged, I believe it stays on for a bit because constant starting/stopping the ICE is unhealthy for it.
Is it possible you are stepping on the gas pedal too much?

Thank you for your explanation. This makes sense as the ICE does engage right after stopping at the end of my street. I'm going to try not charging to full and see what happens.