David Pogue reviews Honda's "mystery" car....

Welcome to the board, and thank you for such a thorough explanation of PHEV's in general. It is a category the auto buying public knows almost nothing about, which is a shame. Your tech cred will be helpful in their education.

 

And David, you’re forgiven for calling our rear ends ugly.

Fun review, thanks!

 

Excellent video. Thanks, @Pogue.

I am just stunned that Honda has such extraordinarily poor marketing. I too stumbled on this car by accident and it met all my checkmarks for a PHEV. As a marketing professor, I am starting to wonder about Honda's marketing department. But perhaps they have some secret plan for global domination with this car that I cannot fathom.

 

The Honda Clarity PHEV -- A heinie only a mother an EV fan could love?
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I wonder why they changed the front at the last minute. All the press shots from the summer looked like this:

 

That's the electric model. I saw numerous web sites that talked about the PHEV but the car shown was the electric model.
Either one is fine with me but I do like this one a bit more.

 

That's the FCV model, which has black wheel inserts .

 

@Pogue - about time for an update on the Honda Clarity - don't you think? We now have 4045 miles on ours (a good amount of experience in hybrid only mode as EVERYTHING is 100 miles from Midland TX). A constant 40 mpg (+/- 2mpg) at highway speeds (in West Texas, 70-80 mph are the posted limits). Daily use never triggers the ICE except when Honda seems to think it needs to run (lubrication and gas stability would be my guess there). It is a gem.

AND NO, it is not fugly, even from the backside (although it would be BEAUTIFUL if it were more like a BMW 5 series in design, or at least a true hatchback).