[Paul92203]

Greetings,


So far everything is running well. Live in the Palm Springs area and just leased 2018 Clarity. great deal while they last.
Able to drive two days to work and back home with out charging.


Have a few questions that might have already been answered, let me know.


1. Anyway of using just battery? This morning the engine kicked in twice and the battery was close to full and I didn't push gas pedal more then half way.
2. Does EV mode keep the car running on battery more and only start engine if needed?
3. Anyone driven the car in the Desert? Gets hot here for a few months and was wondering what to expect. Drove a 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid and it wasn't a good car for the Desert


thank you

 

[4sallypat]

Welcome aboard fellow Southern Californian.

1. Yes, the EV display that shows up when you start the car means you are in battery only mode. The engine will only kick on if the demand you make (accelerator) exceeds the battery motor ability. I drive bumper to bumper on my commute to work so I never go above 30MPH and thus battery all the way to work and back.

2. Engine starts if you press the Sport button, HV button or HV charge. It will also start up when going up hills, downhill with a full battery charge, etc... That's normal.

3. Same here wondering if the high temps will put a damper on the battery range - folks here on the forum have said minimal impact on the battery range if A/C is used in Eco mode. Apparently heating draws more battery power that is currently affecting the majority of the country...

 

[mowcowbell]

Paul, congrats on your new Clarity lease! Although I don't live in an area quite as hot as Palm Springs, I would be interested in hearing your experience with your Clarity when things heat up in a few months. I'm still shopping for a vehicle, have the Clarity, Insight and Accord Hybrid on my shopping list.

 

[BillM]

A bit of clarification, Paul.

Do you have a User's Manual? If you haven't picked one up, please do so. You can also get it in a pdf from the Honda owner's site. The Owner's Guide is good, but it is not as comprehensive. Page 12 of the User's Manual has a chart indicating when the Engine kicks in when you are in EV mode, depending on which one of the various driving modes: ECON, NORMAL, or SPORT you have selected. It depends on how much power you are requesting from the battery, which may request added boost from the Engine. The three driving modes create different mappings of the accelerator pedal, so the same press of the pedal in SPORT mode will request more acceleration than identical press in NORMAL, than in ECON. SPORT will thus appear more "lively", the ECON will make your driving appear more "smooth".

In HV mode, the power requests of the pedal are still determined by what driving mode you are in and may result in supplementary battery use as well as engine use. So it is always good to have some charge available for the system.
Page 11 of the User's Manual describes all possibilities. Unfortunately it does not specify exactly what specific states of the system result in changes of the topology of the energy flow of the running system as you drive.

I learned a lot by driving with the energy flow screen visible on the Information Screen. Recommend it!