Who has the highest ratio?

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by Geor99, Dec 3, 2019.

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  1. Geor99

    Geor99 Active Member

    I have been averaging approximately 3,000 miles between fill-ups. Rounding up to 300 miles per tank, I am:

    90% electric (2,700/tank) and 10% gas (300/tank) miles in my Clarity over the past 18,000 miles.

    Anyone out there with a higher electric %? I wonder if anyone has been able to approach 100?

    If my commute was 3 or 4 miles shorter, I wouldn't need nearly as much gas on the way into work. (Going home is more downhill and almost never needs gas.)
     
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  3. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    I don't have the odometer readings but I just checked. The last time we added gas to the Clarity was October 22, about 40 days ago. The gas gauge shows one bar down so nearly full. That fill-up was at the end of a 300 mile day trip. The only reason it's used any gas since the fill is a couple of times when I forced the car to kick the gas engine on for a few minutes. We don't have any plans to leave the area so won't likely need gas for another several weeks.

    We are starting to use a little gas due to the cold. This morning we only had 35 miles of EV range. My wife ran out of battery power at the end of taking our son to school and doing some shopping.
     
  4. MrFixit

    MrFixit Well-Known Member

    I defer to your electric superiority !!
    We are at 10,700 total odometer miles, with 76% electric.

    I think perhaps @KentuckyKen may give you a run for the money !
     
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  5. Robert_Alabama

    Robert_Alabama Well-Known Member

    I'm pretty much equal to @MrFixit with this one. Used about 75 gallons in 11000 miles. Probably about 75% electric. I was doing better, but picked up a couple of longer highway trips lately...
     
  6. Geor99

    Geor99 Active Member

    It would also be interesting to hear from people with a really low ratio and to know if they still like or regret buying the car. Sometimes one's life can take unexpected turns, and their commutes can drastically change unexpectedly.

    I would imagine that people with really low ev miles might have been better served by buying a different vehicle. Or not:)


    I
     
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  8. JCA

    JCA Active Member

    I'm close to 10K miles on the odometer since purchasing in April -- filled up twice in April, once in May, and once in August and I have about 1/3 tank remaining. I don't have the receipts in front of me, but let's say 20 gallons used at 45 MPG = 900 miles out of 10K, so a little over 90% electric overall.

    However, around 700 of those miles were for road trips where if the Clarity weren't so comfortable we would have taken our Highlander Hybrid (which gets under 30 MPG so the Clarity's HV MPG was a pure win), so the daily use gas mile count is probably more like 200 miles out of 9300, or around 97% electric driving.

    I was considering the Bolt also, and while it would obviously have been 100% electric for daily use (and had the range to do all of the extra distance errand days), we definitely wouldn't have taken it on a roadtrip into the mountains both because of range and comfort, so my overall electric percentage would have been lower.
     
  9. KentuckyKen

    KentuckyKen Well-Known Member

    I’m at 14,073 miles and 2 months shy of 2 years ownership and have only pumped 17 gallons in. Hard to say exactly how much gas I’ve used since it came with half a tank and I have a full tank now. I’ve recorded all gas, kWhs and miles. On my few HV trips of 760 miles total, I averaged 49 mpg (after accounting for the small loss of SOC).
    So I'm 94.6% EV and 5.4% HV.

    Yeah, I don’t get out much and before you say a low range EV would have worked for me, I’m a one car household (widower, empty nester) and didn’t want to be restricted by having to charge on long trips. So a PHEV was perfect for me. For me, it’s a virtual BEV that has no range anxiety. And the bargain to quality ratio of the Honda Clarity was irresistible.

    I’ve never heard the angry bees and @insightman has got me too scared to push the HV button (leading to biker gang bars, tattoos, prison time, etc.). But I’ve actually never needed it since I start all out of town trips in HV with a full battery.
    Oh, and all in quiet comfort, reliability, and half the price of a Tesla, so, yes, I’m a happy camper.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2019
  10. Geor99

    Geor99 Active Member

    Wow- almost 95%!!! Itll be difficult to catch up to that; but I'm trying:)

    That's got to be the Clarity record.
     
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  11. The Gadgeteer

    The Gadgeteer Active Member

    I drive 18K/year and use the engine often but even so I still go days at a time with no engine and tank of gas can easily last weeks. My driving pattern is not always predictable but saving money on gas is always a given with the Clarity even on drive trips that are mostly all HV mode.
     
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  13. insightman

    insightman Well-Known Member Subscriber

    @KentuckyKen, I have no problem with the HV button--it provides access to some of the Clarity's most outstanding features for those who cannot complete all their journeys on battery power alone. The SPORT Mode button, however, is for those who have forsaken the goals of maximum efficiency. I, of course, acknowledge the right of any Clarity driver to take advantage of all the car's features, including the alluring temptations of SPORT Mode for those who consider the Clarity otherwise unresponsive. The framers of our constitution...oops, don't want to get too far off-track.
     
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  14. KentuckyKen

    KentuckyKen Well-Known Member

    @insightman , I am so sorry. I keep leaving off the Charge after I type HV.
    I know you only kid about HV Charge not HV. I mean, otherwise, why even buy a PHEV if you won’t ever take advantage of HV? Evidently, I only have 2 neurons left talking to each other and then only occasionally.
    My humblest apologies for making you have to correct me a 2nd time.

    And now I see I confused HV Charge with your humorous take on SPORT Mode. (2 mistakes for the price of 1) I promise to try better next time. Evidently, I need to go to my Alzheimer’s Support Group, but I can’t remember where they meet.
     
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  15. ClarityBill

    ClarityBill Active Member

    I am a low-ratio driver. (I kind of wish I had not looked at my 'ratio'.) I had 42k miles in the first year, about a month ago. I have now burned 774 gallons of gas at 45,166. Most of my drives are about 120 miles, so I was hoping to get almost half my travel from electricity... I like to be warm while I drive, so 10 months of the year I am getting less than 47 miles per charge.

    My weekends are 30-40 mile days. It seems fine around town, as an electric.

    As a low-ratio driver, I was very disappointed by the noisy high rpm's. The HV reset has pretty much cured that for me, and (as an engineer) I don't mind playing with the buttons while I drive.

    I am still fascinated by the technology, but I would not recommend it for the average travelling salesman. Most people don't take many road trips with an under-sized 4-cylinder engine, but I was hoping the battery would be available for supplemental power: I am not impressed with Honda's programming.
     
  16. Geor99

    Geor99 Active Member

    So you are approximately 30% electric/70% gas. I would assume that you are in the lowest ev% category. Your response is along the lines of what I was assuming. I also find the car underpowered and noisy once the battery runs out- at least until I also began using the "button trick."
     
  17. insightman

    insightman Well-Known Member Subscriber

    HV Charge has its place. Due to losses in the system it is not possible to achieve an EV benefit that matches the cost in gasoline to achieve that benefit. However, for those who want more power to attack a mountain or to enter an urban area without adding to the atmospheric pollution, HV Charge makes perfect sense. I also endorse the newfound use of HV Charge as a warning sound for pedestrians who are not alerted by the celestial sounds the Clarity emits at low speeds.
     
  18. Paul Priest

    Paul Priest New Member

    I picked up my 18 Touring (used) on 8/12/19 with a full tank of fuel. I have not stopped at a gas station yet. Over 3800 miles. I have a little over 1/4 tank left. (I treated the gas) Love this car!
     
  19. David Towle

    David Towle Well-Known Member

    Been at about 2% electricity for about 8 months now and proud of it! For me its significantly lower cost than electricity, and I get better gas mileage than 99% of cars, and I cycle the engine a lot less because I use HV Charge so I can drive in EV around town. And all in sport mode except when in cruise on the highway.
    Do you think topping off the battery once a month is enough to keep it in good shape?
     
  20. Sandroad

    Sandroad Well-Known Member

    This is an interesting thread! I had not thought to calculate the ratio before, for some reason. I keep track of the information necessary for the calculation and am at 92.9% EV after 18 months of ownership. I see no reason for that to change in the foreseeable future.
     
  21. Robert_Alabama

    Robert_Alabama Well-Known Member

    Yes, I would think that is fine. I don't know that it is required, but it seems that it couldn't hurt either. Your battery will probably outlast any of us that are primarily EV.

    I'm glad you like the Clarity, even using it primarily with gas. I have learned that HV Charge has benefits that I hadn't fully appreciated. It may be that at some driving speeds (I am suspecting 50-60 mph) that HV Charge is equal to HV mode in efficiency and may even be a better option for overall mpg. The overall efficiency of the Clarity is amazing to me. I bought a 2019 Chevrolet Volt in September to replace a 2012 Volt. I still haven't been able to do a real comparison of the efficiency of the Clarity compared to the Volt as we haven't run the Volt much on gas yet. But based on published specs the Clarity matches it on gas, and beats it on electricity. That's amazing to me with the Clarity outweighing it by 500 pounds.
     
  22. Geor99

    Geor99 Active Member

    I'd like to put a chart together to get a feel as to the %s that people use ev versus gas in their Clarities. This is purely out of curiosity. I'm not employed in a field that would use this data in any way.

    Even if it is a guess, take a few seconds and add your % to the thread- even just a quick "x% ev" would give me a datapoint.

    Thanks in Advance, and I'll obviously post the chart here.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2019
  23. David Towle

    David Towle Well-Known Member

    And has real room for one more person.
     

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