Any problems driving completely in EV?

I have a 10 mile commute each direction and only charge at work for free. I’m in a similar boat and would also be interested in what people think. I’m 90% of the time driving electric.

 

The more you drive in EV, the longer the ICE will last; if you drive 90% electric and have 100k miles on the car, you have roughly the equivalent of an ICE with only 10k miles on it! The car's hybrid control system will not allow the ICE to go unused for so long that it causes problems. This means that someone who never gets in a situation where the ICE is needed will be surprised by seemingly random and unexpected ICE startups.

 

No problem; it's what the car was designed and built to do!

If you run the ICE at all, I suggest doing it for more than a couple of miles to get it warmed up good.

 

I occasionally "floor it" in EV mode just for the rush of acceleration, and to get used to what's actually available. I've noticed the ICE says on for quite some time after that. It makes sense - one of the worst things you can do to an ICE is to briefly start it and then shut down. Water is one of the byproducts of combustion, and if the exhaust doesn't get hot enough to evaporate it, it just sits there. Modern exhausts are much, much better than those of yore, but standing water can probably still corrode them over time if allowed to.

 

I can't speak the the Clarity, but I owned a Volt for many years and a Clarity now. The Volt computer was smart enough to know that that the engine needed to be run, and took care of it for you. For instance, if you had a tank of gas and didn't use the engine for months, it would automatically run it the necessery amount to make sure the parts / oil / gas didn't stagnate. I'd be surprised if the Clarity didn't have this feature. So I really would be shocked if you had to periodically / manually run it in EV mode just to make sure the ICE was periodically used.

 

I don't think purposely running the ICE is needed. The car will automatically run it in maintenance mode when needed. I find that never happens for us as we do take out of town trips on average every six weeks when the ICE will run which eliminates the need for the car to run it in maintenance mode.

 

Here's the thread which gives a fuller explanation. Short answer. Don't worry about it; the computer will take care of it for you.

https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/when-does-the-gas-engine-run-other-than-on-hard-acceleration.548/

 

Yesterday I was driving w/ a fully charged battery in ECO mode and the ICE came on and ran for the first part of my trip, then reverted back to full EV after that. So, I think the car will maintain itself. Only 360 mile in, but I do love this car.

 

In the past 9 months I've driven 5200 miles on 6-7 gallons of gas (one visit to the pump, gas gauge currently >90% full); so, I'm almost entirely on EV. I stay almost entirely in Sport mode (maintaining 4 regen chevrons), allowing peppy nearly-one-pedal driving. As others have said, I let the engine maintenance systems run the ICE as needed. In a few months, I will need my first oil change. What a luxury car!

 

I took a 200 mile trip last July and since then the engine has come on twice with a message that it was running to re-circulate the oil. Otherwise, I'm EV only.

 

I don't believe I've heard of that message from a Clarity PHEV before. It wasn't a System Check message? How many miles did you drive between seeing "recirculate the oil" messages?

 

How long did the message stay on? Momentary or the whole time the ICE was on?
I ask because I’ve never seen that message. So I’ve either missed it or I’m having enough of the “no regen allowed on full battery ICE starts” that it’s not needed.

 

I can’t find any message about the System Check in the Manual.
Do you think this Oil Circulation message is the same as a System Check? As in will we we see this during a System Check ICE start or not?
The manual does not give an explation for the Oil Circulation message just the condition when it occurs (when engine has not been run for a long time).

 

You're right, Ken, I don't believe there is a System Check message. Page 13 in the Owners Manual says:
The curved blue line in the POWER/CHARGE Gauge will not appear during the system check (EV indicator may still turn on).

 

Yeah, they’re not making it easy for us to figure it out.
I’ve never seen the engine on for oil circulation message, but I have had plenty of ICE starts in EV over the last 11 months. Just no way to tell for sure if they were System Checks or the no regen on a full battery/protection by ICE operation scenario. I know a few were the latter since they happened immediately after a full charge and exactly when inbrakes hard. But the rest, who knows?
I drive almost all EV, but I don’t begrudge the ICE from starting occasionally because it keeps it reliable and ready to go, and I haven’t even lost a bar on the gas gauge in 6 months.
Man, I love this car as much as you love that old Insight (and your new Clarity as well, I bet.)

 

I have been driving in EV only since last February (2018). I plug my car into the provided level 1 charger every night in my garage. I have had zero problems of any kind. (After about 9 months, I was curious and did force the ICE on for a couple of minutes.)