[longfam18]

I am having trouble figuring out when to use HV Charge. Has anyone figured out how to maximize a trip using HV Charge? In what situations is it best?

First some background: my daily commute is about 7 miles in town on EV, 25 miles on the freeway on HV, and 3 or 4 city miles on EV. Add in the round trip and driving on lunch and I usually get home with 1-2 miles of EV charge left. The freeway has a very hilly section that definitely needs the gas engine or else the EV drains very quickly. Is there a good time to use HV Charge? Could I use less gas overall in a day if I use this feature?

My gut says HV Charge will go completely untouched and I'll add it to the Sport button for useless features. If anyone has figured this out can you please share the secrets?

 

[claritypicker]

In general, a fossil engine performs better at speeds above 50mph (80kph). Therefore, I would recommend using HV mode on freeway. While driving slower, EV mode would be more efficient.
HV-Charge could be considered when you are driving slow (or stuck in traffic) and running low on battery. By engaging the fossil engine at constant low RPM to charge the battery, you will end up using less fuel; versus, driving in HV mode at slow speeds (especially stop and go situation).

Also, see if you can change your route. Sometimes picking shorter route, especially with fewer traffic lights might be overall more efficient than driving extra freeway miles.

 

[PHEV Clarity and Volt]

I have a daily commute of 56 miles. I use Sport most of the time because it allows you to set the regen brake to max and holds it there until you turn it off. This maximizes my Clarity regen and extends my daily range to about 60-62 miles. It also saves your brake pads. I have a Chevy Volt and it has 86,000 miles on it with 70% of the original brake pads left. I set my Volt to regen when I lift off the accelerator too.

I use google maps when traveling far and when I know I will exceed my battery range for the day I will engage HV mode when the freeway traffic is light. I try to use HV only once during the trip and only at high freeway speeds. Reducing the number of times the engine turns on reduces wear and allows the engine to get to optimal operating temperature. Plus, I’m not a fan of using the engine period. The less I hear it, the better. The car runs much better on battery in my opinion.

 

[Claire Greene]

I am having trouble figuring out when to use HV Charge. Has anyone figured out how to maximize a trip using HV Charge? In what situations is it best?

First some background: my daily commute is about 7 miles in town on EV, 25 miles on the freeway on HV, and 3 or 4 city miles on EV. Add in the round trip and driving on lunch and I usually get home with 1-2 miles of EV charge left. The freeway has a very hilly section that definitely needs the gas engine or else the EV drains very quickly. Is there a good time to use HV Charge? Could I use less gas overall in a day if I use this feature?

My gut says HV Charge will go completely untouched and I'll add it to the Sport button for useless features. If anyone has figured this out can you please share the secrets?

HV CHARGE is the LEAST efficient mode of power for the Clarity so avoid using it if you can. But is it a useless feature? ONe situation where it is useful is on a long drive is when you deplete your battery by accident because the car defaults to EV mode when you start off. If you can see a long uphill road up ahead, you can use HV charge to build up some battery power to help climb up the incline. Do you HAVE to use HV charge? No, the car will climb that hill with no problem but you will have to put up with the angry bees sound of the engine as it screams to make power and you will certainly feel the lack of power climbing up the incline. this is just one scenario I can think of for using HV charge but I'm sure a lot of owners will come up with other uses for it in the future depending on situations and predicament. The important thing is to understand what it does so one can tailor it's use to a particular need.
The same goes for sport button, while it may be useless in your situation other owners might prefer the sharp responses it affords them vs EV mode and some owners might hate the weak regen feature of our Clarity so they might prefer max regen all the time without having to use the regen paddles everytime. Again, it's a matter of preference and understanding how a feature works so it can be utilized accordingly. Hope that answers your question even though it's a bit long winded.

 

[Claire Greene]

As for your daily driving routine, if you are getting back home with 1 or2 EV miles left, my suggestion is to leave it in EV mode the whole time. Nothing can be more efficient than running on Battery power 100% since it's free (ok you have to pay for your home electricity to charge) but you're not using a drop of fossil fuel in your whole commute. Better yet if you have free charging at work. But in the event that you make an extra trip that depletes your 1 or 2 EV miles, don't worry about it and let the car figure it out as far as which mode to use unless of course you feel that you can outsmart the computer and it's algorithm for efficiency.:wink:

 

[longfam18]

Thanks for the replies. I did some testing and found some more info on HV Charge:


While idling in a parking lot (waiting for my wife on Black Friday) with almost no EV range left I decided to idle with HV Charge on to see how much battery I could recharge before she got back. The engine was under no load other than charging the battery, so perhaps this wasn't the most efficient time to test HV Charge but I figured I could isolate the feature to see how it does on its own.


After about 15 minutes of idling I had gained 0.5 miles of EV range and lost 3 miles of HV range. I understand these are all estimates and it isn't terribly scientific but this is very much in line with my original worry about HV Charge and matches with what you just said about it being the least efficient mode. The only scenario I can ever see wanting HV Charge on would be to build up 3 or 4 miles of EV range before coming into town. In another thread someone complained that Honda shouldn't cap the recharge at 57%, but I think it's a moot point.


In regards to my daily commute, the 3 miles are hilly and I like to have a little battery left for the hills; if I come out with 1 or 2 miles left I still see it as a win :smile:

 

[Klarity]

HV Charge is least efficient mode

Longfam18,

The manual says HV Mode and HV Charge are best used at highway speeds. As you noticed, the car will charge while idling, but not very quickly. My gas mileage in HV Charge mode on the highway has been about 28 mpg. The best mileage on highway has been about 70 mpg running in EV mode from full charge to less than half charge then switching to HV mode (which will work to preserve the remaining charge, sort of). Starting with a full charge and running in HV mode as soon as I get on the highway, for the duration of about a 160-mile trip, I got about 40-45 mpg. For your daily commute, maybe just run in default mode and let the car switch to the gas engine when the battery gets low. I like the suggestion of using max regen in Sports mode to extend the EV range and plan to try that myself. On recent long highway trips, mpg in Sports mode was about the same as HV mode alone. My rough calculations show that HV Charge mode is about 2x the cost of plugging-in at home. I still use it sometimes just because I want some use of EV mode at my end destination or just to run the ICE a little.

 

[Shermo]

I'd love to know the answer to those questions as well. The manual is totally useless with respect to these issues as are the well intended dealership service personnel.