So far so good

Good to see you're enjoying your new Clarity. I've gone for weeks without a drop of gasoline.

Like you, I wish we had a bit more robust reporting from the computer... like engine hours, KWh per mile, etc.

 

I've repeatedly begged Honda to offer an optional package that provides the kind of information involved drivers crave. I'd pay many hundreds of dollars for that app. The only downside for Honda would be enabling Clarity owners to better identify and classify problems Honda doesn't want to address.

 

I'm a little bemused that Honda seems so uninterested in user feedback for a vehicle which is essentially a design prototype. Maybe they are sucking so much data from the car via the cellular link that they don't need our human input.

 

I got a BAFX OBDII device and Torque Pro a couple weeks ago, and have been recording second by second state of charge, speed, and engine RPM data whenever I remember to start the app. Someday I'll take the data to an analysis script to determine whether the SOC is linear (which would let us determine mi/kWh on at least a mile by mile granularity).

Already found some interesting things -- the battery meter in the car shows full (20 bars) until the SOC gets to 84%, then it's a bar per ~4.5% down to 2 bars at 10% when EV=0 and the engine comes on.

I also realized that the GPS data the app records will finally let me determine over time which of my route (and subroute) options to work is best. I look forward to the many tens of hours I spend doing the analysis saving me 2 minutes a day in traffic!

 

Maybe you can use the data to answer the lingering question about whether using the paddles is more efficient than using the brake pedal. We know that the friction brakes are used in hard stopping, and also for the last few seconds before complete stop. However there is a theory that when using the brake pedals even for light braking that a small amount of friction braking is blended in to provide the smooth braking experience that people commend the Clarity on.

To test this I think you could do identical stops using regen and brake pedal and measure how much electricity is generated, assuming that the app shows this information. Identical meaning starting from the same speed and slowing at the same rate. For example 0.7 m/s² is 15 MPH of deceleration every 10 seconds. So you would get on a level road going say 45 mph, with of course no cars behind you, then slow from 45 mph to 15 mph in twenty seconds, which would be 0.7 m/s². Then determine from the app how much regen occurred. Do multiple runs, alternating between paddles and brake pedal to see if there is any difference. Battery should be 40% or below during the test runs since we suspect that regen starts to become limited somewhere above 50% due to concerns about heat.

I don't know if using the paddles you can decelerate at exactly 0.7 m/s² that was just an example, probably you could use a stopwatch to time some paddle stops at say one or two chevrons to determine the deceleration rate in mph/sec so that you can decelerate at an equivalent rate using the brake pedals.

 

Thats my previous car as well! Ford did some really nice things when it came to the app, scheduling go times, home/away charging, KWH used. What I loved was if I was within 1/2 a mile or a mile from a place where I would usually charge and the battery ran out, Ford would dip into the reserve Hybrid portion with lower power to get me home and not start the engine. I also upgraded to Sync 3 and loved the interface. Honda is bigger, quieter, powerful, more range but Ford beat Honda in features and a much better interface.

 

I have heard of that, how does that work do you have to be using Nav at the time, or is there a "Bonus" button that you push that gives you a short period of EV. This would really benefit me because I have no problems if I run out of EV before arriving home, except for this one short, steep incline in my neighborhood which unfortunately is immediately after a stop sign at the bottom of the hill. The speed limit in my neighborhood is 20 mph and in EV it has no problem going up the incline from a standing stop. However with 0 range I can only crawl up at around 5 mph without the engine coming on really loud, apparently the system detects that I am climbing uphill because of the slow acceleration compared to the throttle position (sorry for the archaic term). It's a bit embarrassing making all of that noise in my otherwise quiet neighborhood, especially if I am coming home late at night. With some skill and practice I can usually build up enough regen prior to that so that I can go quietly up the incline at 10 mph which is a little better, but if I could somehow indicate to the system that I only need a very brief amount of EV that would really be terrific.

 

The rusty discs on our Clarity provide audible evidence that the friction brakes begin engaging at the slightest touch of the brake pedal. I've been braking very hard and often for the past few weeks, but I haven't been able to completely wear away the rust that accumulated when we were not driving our Clarity. It's annoying to hear the swish-swish sound coming from our otherwise silent car's brakes even when the brakes are not engaged.

 

This is automatic. The car's GPS would detect the distance from the charger and let the car drain some more battery. For kicks I drove around my neighborhood for almost 2 miles under 30mph and the engine didnt kick in.

 

Simple solution. Look up how to enter the HV Charge mode. It was made for this occurrence. When you are a few miles from home, change to the HV charge mode until you get to the part where you want to be quiet. Go back to the EV mode and drive up the hill as fast as you want with the few percent of battery that you just added before getting home.

 

Yes but we don't have anything quantitative. The widespread belief is that using the paddles is more efficient than using the brakes, which may very well be true, just like it's true that going 48.9 mph is more efficient than 49.0 mph. I prefer knowing the actual difference in efficiency. One thing I don't like is the lack of brake lights when using maximum regen so in many situations I use the brake pedal instead. I would like to know how much I am being penalized for that, if any.

 

Simple but not very efficient, wasting gas, maybe not a lot but over time it would add up. I can make it up the hill quietly by going extremely slow, except for when someone is behind me which is rare. It would just be nice if the system would notice that you are nearly home like other cars seem to do as we are hearing from other posters.

 

I have had a few battery equipped Honda’s, look back at the problems with the first and second gen Civic hybrids. Honda will Likely do anything to prevent the mess they had on their hands there. they had very many very unhappy customers due to lost capacity of the packs and check engine lights due to packs with lost capacity. instead of replacing the packs they did software updates the lowered the amount of battery used and thus lowered overall mpg of the car. It was a PR nightmare

 

Another CMax Energi owner here too! Still have it.

EV+, as Ford calls it, uses both the modem and the # of start/stops at a location to learn home, work and anywhere else you frequently stop (a charger for example). It will store up to 5 locations. You can force-learn it by repeatedly turning the car on/off at a location a certain number of times (I forget the actual # but I think it's like 9 or 10).

EV+ is a wonderful feature that's 6+ years old tech so I'm really surprised other hybrid/phev cars don't have it (pride? patent? don't think it's useful?) More than once it's given me another mile or so at low speeds to make it home through the neighborhood instead of firing up the ICE.

BEV's do something similar but more radical since they don't have an onboard generator backup plan: turtle mode.

 

I think most people have found that the Clarity provides very little useful OBDII information. Have you found any other useful info besides state of charge, speed, and engine RPM data? Thanks.

 

Shoot, I'm so starve for info I'll take that right now!!! LOL

It would be great if you can torque pro to the widget/app screen at least. Or something thru carplay/android auto.

 

Be sure to check out the thread where @AnthonyW describes his experiences with the developers of the Scangauge II. At first, the company seemed very interested in delving into the Clarity-specific codes, but then, not so much. Still, they discovered some interesting info.

 

I have been using BlueDriver OBDII. I record Coolant temp, RPM, Throttle, Ambient temp, Battery SOC. Ambient temp helped in the winter when evaluating poor winter mpg. I played with exhaust temp when I was trying to determine status of the Atkinson engine, but it did not vary with stroke length, the way that I thought it would. I have another system that also shows the status of the drivetrain (gear mode, EV, HV, and transitions), but it is laptop based, and the information has not been worth the effort.