Not Fully Charging

My understanding from other discussions on this forum is that when you "reboot" by disconnecting the 12v battery, you loose the history and it takes a little while to relearn your driving pattern.

As for whether it is fully charging, you should go by the gauge on the driver interface, not the tablet.

 

I too have this problem. I went round-and-round with Honda but they say this is normal. The problem is the battery is obviously reduced in capacity, perhaps a bad cell or two, but it is within the specification so it is not covered under warranty. I have been keeping records. I'm actually hoping things will get worse so I can have Honda repair it under warranty.

During the summer of 2018 the car was getting EV Range values of 48-52 miles. That is what I expected for the summer of 2019 but it never happened.

Since I started keeping records in May 2019 the Clarity has averaged 41.9 miles on the EV Range display with 100% charge.

The top red line is the ambient temperature when the car was being charged (L2).

The blue line is the EV Range value after charging. By the way this proves to be accurate in our driving experience. In other words if the EV Range shows 40 miles of range that is what we are getting in actual use. There are two blips on the blue line. Both are after long road trips when the car poorly computes EV Range based on previous drives. "Oh if you got 80 EV Miles on your last trip we'll estimate a high value for the next trips!"

The green line is the average EV Range.

 

The picture in the original post - the one on the dash shows battery charge. The one on the center infotainment screen shows miles. There is a difference between charge and mile. Your Car is supposed to read zero miles when the battery charge is down to two bars.

 

2 bars remaining at EV 0 is normal.

Many here affectionately refer to the displayed HV and EV range as the Guess-O-Meter. Actual ranges are determined by the position of the right foot.

Did your EV range increase at all on your 15 mile trip?

 

When I took the Clarity to the dealer they checked it over, and they charged it with their own L2 charger. No improvement. I also tried our L1 charger which made no difference.

So far the 41 mile range hasn't bothered us. But this coming winter will drop the range and we will end up having the ICE run on cold days. We take two 25 mile round trips each weekday to take our son to school. I think it is very likely the Clarity EV Range will drop below 25 over the colder winter months.

 

Sounds like you would be a perfect candidate for a L2 32amp EVSE. You could drive the morning 25 mile trip, then fully charge the battery in under 2 hours and be ready for the second 25 mile trip.

 

We do have an L2 JuiceBox and that is exactly what we do. There are often days when we drive as many as 70 miles, all on electric. This is because we charge between trips.

The point I was making was now, with 41 miles of EV range, we don't have a problem with the ICE starting. But when cold weather sets in it is quite possible that the range will drop below 25 miles. If that happens we would run out of juice taking my son to school (25 miles round trip). The ICE would kick on and we would not be able to drive on EV all day/week/month like we do now. We would charge to 100% at home after taking him to school, then run out of EV Range again when we pick him up from school.

Right now, with warm weather, we run EV all the time. When winter comes if the range drops below 25 miles we're screwed for EV and will be forced into hybrid mode at least twice a day. I'm not happy about this but am stuck in this situation.

 

One thing I do not understand - when people post saying "the EV range has been saying X" they almost never report how many actual miles they are driving. To the OP, can you report when you start out with 44 miles estimated, how many actual miles do you drive and what is the estimate at the end?

When I start with 58 and drive 47 round trip, I am confident based on the 10 miles estimated remaining that I would actually get 58 miles. But, if someone else quotes their estimate but turns out to only be driving 10 miles before recharging, I have no faith in what their actual range would be.

 

Add this as a data point:
I’ve been recording miles, gallons and kWhs since I bought the car.
In a year and a half and ~12,000 miles over two summers, the EV range estimate has been consistently ~5 to no more than 10% optimistic. And this is with consistent driving conditions and driving styles. I rarely drive it all the way down to 2 bars and 0 estimated range but when I do, the miles driven are always a little less (<10%) than the estimated. And this is consistent with when I charge before reaching 0 EV. It’s always the case that remaining estimate plus actual miles driven (using Trip A w charging reset) is a little less than the original estimate after a full charge.

For example, if the original EV range estimate is 60-65 miles, I get something in the high 50s. In cooler (Spring/Fall) temps, if full charge estimate is 55 miles then I get 50 ish.
Most of my driving has been EV (only 17 gal in 1 1/2 yrs) and I have good records for all of this.

I can live with that since it’s very consistent if my driving is consistent. I just figure that my real EV range is ~3 to 5 miles less than the reported range. YMMV, but mine is very consistent with this.
The only exception was when I was down to 2 or 3 miles EV range and turned off the car in the junk food line. That seemed to reset something and upon restart it showed 0 EV and the ICE came on even though it showed 3 bars.

 

My experience is the ev range estimate is very close to actual. It's usually within 2 or 3 miles. My driving variation can cause the range estimate to be further off or I can make the actual be better than the estimate.

 

I believe the two bars remain to indicate the “reserve” that’s left even with zero EV miles remaining.

Coincidentally, our predicted EV mileage recently took a hit for no apparent reason, from around 50 to about 45. I just noticed it’s back to 50 after some local running around, do probably just a hiccup.

As far as predicted vs actual, our GA home is at about 1,800’ elevation, and our TN home is around 900’, and they’re roughly 100 miles apart. Leaving GA and showing a predicted range 50 EV miles, let’s say, much of the first half of the trip is overall downhill along the Ocoee River. With regen, after 20 miles driven I’ll often see more than 40 miles remaining. Of course lunch is never free, and the return trip likely produces less EV range than predicted.

As an aside, we usually see about 42 mpg on trips. Recently we logged 45.5 mpg for one tank, but have seen as little as 39 mpg. That’s with cruise set for about 5 mph over the limit. I think winds pay a huge part in this difference.

 

This is completely normal and how Clarity does (and should) behave (probably documented somewhere in the User Guide): Whenever a driver or passenger consumes "junk food", Clarity will consume junk food (=gas) too.

 

Driving 15 miles in HV mode would consume approximately 1/3 gallon of gas. Your photo shows the tank at full. If you or a loved one has a tendency to “top off” the tiny tank, it’s possible that the guess-o-meter is still detecting a full tank.

The fuel gauge in every vehicle I’ve owned has tended to sit on full for 20, 30, 40 or more miles depending on the size of the tank. The tank level sensors seem to show full even when the tank is only 17/19ths full. Try burning some more fuel to see if the estimated range changes.

 

There is nothing in this thread to indicate the vehicle is not "fully charging". The range available from a fully charged battery will vary, so looking at the estimated range to gauge charge status flat out does not work. 44 guestimated out of the rated 47 as temperatures cool doesn't even hint at a battery capacity problem.

The OP does indicate they believe there might be an issue with the battery capacity diminishing (degradation) resulting in the lower estimated range. Some manufacturers specifically exclude degradation from their warranties, and only cover complete failure of the battery pack. The Clarity warranty guarantees 67% capacity for 8 years. @jdonalds has had his battery tested by the dealer and, while it is less than when new, it has not degraded to the point it has become a warranty issue.

44 guestimated as temperatures cool (out of the rated 47) doesn't even hint at a battery capacity problem.