Let’s get the HV range problem fixed!!!! Here’s how and a poll to track it

sent my complaint

 

So that's that. In this case, apparently they don't really care. I am kind of surprised by the variability in Honda's responses to this issue.

 

Interesting observations time:

We made a quick trip to Santa Fe this weekend (about 900 miles round trip). Usually I drive HV the whole way and save the battery for urban commuting, but on one leg forgot to turn it back on and in 30 minutes carved up my battery to single digits:

• Using HV Recharge mode is fairly slow and NOISY (but did get me back from 6 miles to nearly 30 miles EV range)
• HV mpg (at 70 plus mph, was about 37 mpg while in recharge mode)
• Then messed up a second time and dropped EV range to 0.0 (never saw that before) - guess I just love how smooth and quiet this thing is in EV mode
• This time, it would not recharge - ran it 15 miles in HV recharge mode and never came off 0.0
• While at 0.0, it seemed to kick into loud overdrive mode more frequently, but
• It averaged 43 mpg at the same speeds as before
• Recharge at home from 0.0 only took 2:12
• This morning it showed 49.4 EV range (10 miles less than usual) BUT I went 7 actual miles with only 3.2 mile EV drop

That last observation was the most important one to me - the EV range estimate is FAR MORE ACCURATE and self-correcting than the HV range side of the software (after refill back at home last night it showed I had 489 miles HV range - even with Honda's own EPA rating that would mean I had 12.2 gallons in my 7 gallon tank (or I was getting 70 mpg HV mode).

 

The EPA gas only MPG is 40 highway and 44 city. Anyone figure out the MPG for the "HV recharge" miles when charged on the highway and used in the city?

 

Calculating EV range is much easier than calculating some mix range. I.e., HV range seems to be based on your current burn rate of gas over total miles driven, so if you burn 1 gallon of gas a week and drive 200 miles per week it is going to estimate that you will run out of fuel in about 1200 miles or something crazy. This isn't inaccurate, but maybe worse than useless information (as a person might over-drive their available range).

What it needs to do is just show range based on nominal MPG while running gas only (no EV assist). It should maybe adjust that number based on the last samplings where the engine was running but there was no battery assist. It should also adjust much quicker if your efficiency changes. Problem here is it might annoy users if it is jumping around all the time.

I prefer my Volt, it estimates very low if I have been driving a bunch of short trips around town, and drops much slower on the highway. Although not as impressive, it isn't likely to leave me stranded anywhere.

 

I agree. Since Clarity display shows Range = EV range + HV range, HV range should be on gas only maintaining constant state of battery charge. I'd be happy with HV range = nominal MPG * gallons in the tank. It does not need to dynamically calculate recent HV MPG.

I'd also be happy if they let the user select to show EV range on the dashboard (instead of total Range). Then I could use the center area of dash to show music/nav/text msgs/etc. And on long trips, I buy gas when the gas gauge gets low.

Related problem is that the MPG displayed on trip info screen is 10-14% high. Showing 45.5 - 47.3 when actual measured was 41.5 MPG. I have no idea how they mess this up since computer should know precisely how much gas was used by engine and how many miles the car travelled. I suspect there may be a fudge factor number stored in an ECU register that could be changed to make this an easy fix.

 

I’ve said this from day one.

 

This might be a dumb question, but how do I get that display on my main screen? I have only been able to get it on the instrument panel screen.

 

I guess you mean Home->Info->Vehicle Energy

geo

 

Got a question for those of you that has a HV range of over 1000, or anything that is higher than normal.

If you watch this video:

At timestamp 8:19, you will see that he has the center screen in the Vehicle Energy screen, you will see that his HV range is 429km, but at the far right of the screen, you will see a '240km' range kind of in the middle of the arc. If your HV range is 1000 (either miles or km), is there a '500' or some high number at that location indicating mid way thru your EV range?

 

You da man, thanks

 

It's not like Honda (or any mfr) doesn't know how to display estimated range on an ICE engine, which essentially is what we want the Clarity to display. My '17 CRV range estimate display seems to be spot on.

 

Like the others in this thread I am experiencing the same bogus HV odometer readings. Fortunately the gasoline gauge works.

Bought my Clarity in December 2018, and the HV odometer was fairly accurate for the first two times I had to fill it up with gasoline. Then about a month and a half ago, fill it up with gas, and the HV odometer range shot up to 800.

Like others here, I called Honda, she took down all the information, said someone would get back to me, which they didn't. I then went to the dealer, and they said they had no fix. I asked them if they could reload the software anyway to see if that would resolve the problem, and they told me they needed special permission from Honda to do that.

The customer support is worthless. I was assuming if I let the HV range get down below the 400 mile range it would start behaving normally, but reading the posts here it sure doesn't seem to be the case.

I really appreciate the links that Ken supplied to report the issue to Honda, and I plan to do the second link to the NHTSA.

The cars been out since the 4th quarter of 2017, and nothing has happened.

I also got the same Honda form letter with a case number, and to contact the dealer as others have.

It is pretty sad.

I also don't see the Clarity plug-in hybrid being advertised too much, and that makes me wonder just how committed they are to it.

 

I registered a case with Honda too. Somebody from In=Car Technology called me last night and I again explained the HV Range issue. He seemed to be unaware of the problem, as was the dealer when we talked last week. I also said it was a safety issue with drivers thinking they have more remaining range than they actually do. I told him my EV range seemed to be fairly accurate, but the HV range is totally unacceptable. I told him this is my fourth Hybrid and first Plug-In Hybrid, and that as Hybrid drivers, we are very aware of our cars efficiency and this issue id just not acceptable and a firmware fix should not be that difficult. Just base it on when the ICE actually runs.

Thanks to all of you for being the "Squeaky Wheel" in this issue! Maybe we can get this fixed soon by Honda.

 

Thanks for the link. I just filed a complaint.

 

Seem to be getting the same form letters and run around that others are experiencing, so I called Honda with the case number, and they said the only way it would get addressed is if I bring it in to the dealer, and have them run diagnostics on it. I have an appointment tomorrow.

There is no doubt in my mind this is a software issue, so unless there is a later version of the software I doubt the diagnostics are going to reveal anything. I am not optimistic at all, but I will see what they say tomorrow.

 

On that subject, here are the before and after trip pictures of the display. From what the dealer tells me, it's that the computed value of "before empty" is based on the previous distance vs charge vs gas put in. I tend to agree with this as this value has been increasing from day one. This is totally bogus and my personal view is that what is shown in the display should be "actual" numbers based on EV and HV range.

 

I found a designer from the HondaLink team on LinkedIn and sent him a message asking if he could refer me to someone who'd be able to look into the issue. If he doesn't respond in a few days I'll keep pestering others in the Honda development teams until we hopefully get an answer from someone who can actually fix it or bring attention to it.

 

So I went to the dealer today, They ran diagnostics which were fine, then performed a master reset, and immediately my HV remaining miles showed the correct value. The good news is the master reset they did, did not reset any of my setting, though the Sirius XM "Requested Channel is not available" error reappeared, and I needed to reapply the "Multiple Channel Mix Preset" toggle suggested by Rajiv to fix that issue.

I suspect the HV bogus odometer issue may return though, probably when I fill up the gas tank, because that is when I first encountered it, and assumed it was the trigger event.

What I speculate what may have triggered it was when filling up the gas tank, when the gas nozzle clicks off, I press the nozzle again to top off the tank, and I am thinking that action may caused a pressure change which sent multiple signals and caused the HV calculated range to double. Probably far-fetched, but I will experiment with it