We have a 2018 Clarity which is mostly used for daily local driving with the occasional longer distance trip. We have brought it in for all recommended services at the dealer including a recent one. The car has not given us any problems to this point. We have a Chargepoint Level 2 charger in our garage.
Generally, when traveling a longer distance trips, the behavior is that the battery runs down to two bars then the gas engine starts running much of the time. This makes sense.
Yesterday, this behavior changed. At about 35 miles out on the highway, I was using their adaptive cruise when I came up behind a rather slow vehicle. I moved to overtake, and instead of the car speeding back up to the limit, it lost significant power to the point I felt the need to press on the accelerator aggressively. When I did so, the engine came on very loud, much louder than I ever remember, and the car recovered speed. The engine stayed on very loud and the battery charge dropped to one bar then zero bars. I have never seen the battery go below two bars. I pulled off at the next rest stop, shut down and restarted, and used the HV charge mode. The battery did charge seemingly normally. We got to our destination before the charging reached its limit.
On the return trip the same thing happened but I wasn't overtaking. The battery again went to zero bars with the engine loud. I went back to HV charge and completed the trip. The battery reached 60% charge (as reported by the app) and a message was displayed that charging was stopped and could be completed with a charger.
Conditions were nominal. Not especially cold, not using heated seats, nothing unusual.
My question is, is this normal, perhaps the dealer updated software, or is something wrong and needs immediate attention. As I mentioned, this is the first time I have seen the battery charge go to zero bars.
Generally, when traveling a longer distance trips, the behavior is that the battery runs down to two bars then the gas engine starts running much of the time. This makes sense.
Yesterday, this behavior changed. At about 35 miles out on the highway, I was using their adaptive cruise when I came up behind a rather slow vehicle. I moved to overtake, and instead of the car speeding back up to the limit, it lost significant power to the point I felt the need to press on the accelerator aggressively. When I did so, the engine came on very loud, much louder than I ever remember, and the car recovered speed. The engine stayed on very loud and the battery charge dropped to one bar then zero bars. I have never seen the battery go below two bars. I pulled off at the next rest stop, shut down and restarted, and used the HV charge mode. The battery did charge seemingly normally. We got to our destination before the charging reached its limit.
On the return trip the same thing happened but I wasn't overtaking. The battery again went to zero bars with the engine loud. I went back to HV charge and completed the trip. The battery reached 60% charge (as reported by the app) and a message was displayed that charging was stopped and could be completed with a charger.
Conditions were nominal. Not especially cold, not using heated seats, nothing unusual.
My question is, is this normal, perhaps the dealer updated software, or is something wrong and needs immediate attention. As I mentioned, this is the first time I have seen the battery charge go to zero bars.
