I would not be concerned at all. What you are describing is very normal.
Charge level over nominal capacity
Hi, We have a 2019 Clarity plug-in hybrid. Great car. We recently took a trip from Berkeley to Yosemite and drove around the area, which obviously involved serious climbs and descents. When I charge at home I occasionally get a reading of a little over 50 miles, though the nominal max is 47. Descending into the valley on this trip, however, the level regeneratively charged to about 62. Otherwise, using HV and the paddles the trips around the area were normal. When I got home and charged, however, I got it up to 78. I ran that down running errands in EV to around 18 and, after charging last night, got it back up to 62. I assume no harm is being done and this is a particularity of the charge cycle (and reading the level) after an unusual trip. I'd guess that I'll soon be seeing the normal of around 50 soon. Anything to be concerned about with this? Thanks
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What you are looking at is estimated EV range, where the computer tries to predict how far you will be able to drive on your current charge based on how much electricity you used on your most recent driving. When your trips are relatively constant it will generally be a pretty good estimate. However when your trips are constantly changing between city driving (usually the highest range) and high speed or mountain driving (lower range) then it will be all over the board as it is constantly adjusts its estimate. The system has no way to know what your next trip will be like, so the estimate can be completely wrong if your next trip has completely different conditions than your most recent trips.
For example after you drove downhill from Yosemite and used very little electricity, it had no choice but to assume that you will use a similarly small amount of electricity on your next trip. That might seem dumb because unless your car was towed back uphill to the Yosemite floor and then driven back down again, there is no way that you would get that kind of range on your next trip. Well in fact the system is dumb, it just looks at what you did last and assumes that is what you will do next. Future systems may be able to provide more accurate range estimates based on what you program into the NAV system, as well as factoring in current and predicted weather conditions, but no systems that I know of do that right now, not even Tesla as far as I know. For this reason the EV range indicator has a popular nickname which is "guess-o-meter"
For example after you drove downhill from Yosemite and used very little electricity, it had no choice but to assume that you will use a similarly small amount of electricity on your next trip. That might seem dumb because unless your car was towed back uphill to the Yosemite floor and then driven back down again, there is no way that you would get that kind of range on your next trip. Well in fact the system is dumb, it just looks at what you did last and assumes that is what you will do next. Future systems may be able to provide more accurate range estimates based on what you program into the NAV system, as well as factoring in current and predicted weather conditions, but no systems that I know of do that right now, not even Tesla as far as I know. For this reason the EV range indicator has a popular nickname which is "guess-o-meter"
The Clarity's EV range estimator is a "guess-o-meter." The problem is the EV range is so small and EV efficiency is so widely variable that the car can't really give you a good estimate to the remaining range. "Full" range estimates from the low 30s to the low 60s are common based on external temperature and the speed you've been driving.
Thanks to all of you for that clear info. Makes complete sense.
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