[John]

I see folks online saying you can jump start another car from a Clarity plug-in hybrid’s 12V battery. But it concerns me that others when discussing hybrid Priuses say that you can’t do that from a Prius, because the 12V is just for accessories and isn’t designed to actually start the car. What starts a Clarity — the 12V battery or the big battery pack? Can you offer someone a jump?

 

[Claire Greene]

It's my understanding that the big battery starts the Clarity, but the 12 v is big enough to jump start another car, heck one person connected an inverter to the Clarity 12 v battery and powered some of his appliances during one of the big storm that hit the east coast. Technically the 12 v battery in the clarity doesn't do anything other than close contacts to "wake up" the car computers. The big battery powers all accessories via the DC-DC converter which converts 300+v to 12v. Honda missed a big opportunity to save weight by not eliminating the 12v battery, or at least replace it with a motorcycle battery. If you're really concerned about hurting your Clarity but want to help out a fellow motorist simply disconnect one of the terminals to isolate the battery from the car and give a jumpstart. Again, that is just my understanding of the Clarity system so if you read it on the internet that you can't do that then it must be true......it's on the internet.

 

[mowcowbell]

Better yet, buy one of those lithium jump start batteries and use that to jump start someone's vehicle instead of using your 12v battery.

https://www.amazon.com/GOOLOO-18000...r&qid=1550752958&s=gateway&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1

 

[Lucid]

Don't see the point of risking damage to the hybrid system when there are so many small, portable booster packs on the market these days. These 12V systems were not designed to start an engine, and I doubt it has the cranking amps to successfully start a dead car.

 

[The Gadgeteer]

It should be safe to connect jumper cables and charge another car’s battery for several minutes but I would disconnect the jumper cables before the other car cranks the starter. The surge from the other car trying to start then once it starts could damage the Clarity’s electronics.