Is Honda pulling the plug on clarity?

Before I got the PHEV version, I was seriously looking at the FCV version as there were 3 big reasons:
1. Emissions = water.
2. Fueling stations close by.
3. Free fuel.

But none were readily available - lots of dealers said they have wait lists going on 6 months and would need a $1000 deposit to be on the list.

I love my PHEV and won't consider jumping ship unless the car turns out to be a lemon.
Seeing that the expensive battery warranty is 10 years, I am going to keep her for at least that long.

Now, since my wife took over the Clarity, and I get stuck with her ICE, I'm looking at the Pilot PHEV....

 

If I recall correctly, someone posted over a year ago some Honda published numbers showing that they never planned on making more than around 70-80k of the Clarity model over three years so I guess that they are not quite to half of that yet. Someone else may be able to find that earlier thread but I couldn't.

Another forum member posted a Honda CEO speech where he talks about Hybrids and EVs but makes no mention of PHEV technology. In reading his comments it made me wonder if they have decided the PHEV is an option they don't want to offer in the future.

Direction for the electrification of our automobile products
Striving to realize a carbon-free society, Honda set a goal to electrify two-thirds of our global automobile unit sales by 2030.

When we talk about the introduction of electrified vehicles, there are two perspectives. One is the improvement of fuel economy, and the other is zero emissions. Regulations for the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are becoming increasingly stringent in every country around the world and complying with CAFE standards is one of the most important challenges for the automobile industry. At Honda, in light of the required infrastructure and how people use automobiles, we believe that hybrid technology is, at this moment, the most effective way for us to comply with CAFE standards. Therefore, we will electrify our products mainly with hybrid technologies. By increasing sales of our hybrid models all around the world, Honda will contribute to the global environment through the improvement of fuel economy.

To this end, we will expand the application of our 2-motor hybrid system to the entire lineup of Honda vehicles. In addition to the 2-motor hybrid system which is compatible with mid-to-large-sized vehicles, we developed a new, more compact 2-motor hybrid system suitable for small-sized vehicles. This small-sized 2-motor hybrid system will be adopted first by the all-new Fit which we are planning to exhibit as a world premiere at the Tokyo Motor Show this fall.

In addition to the expansion of the lineup of products equipped with the 2-motor hybrid system, we also will expand the application of the 2-motor hybrid system on a global basis. With that, by 2022, we are expecting to reduce the cost of the 2-motor hybrid system by 25% compared to the cost of this system in 2018.

As for zero emission vehicles, with our battery EVs we will comply with the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) program being adopted by California and other states in the U.S. and China's New Energy Vehicle (NEV) mandate. We will efficiently introduce our battery EVs to the market by selecting the most appropriate partners and resources to satisfy the different needs in each region.

In North America, we will jointly develop battery components with General Motors and introduce highly-competitive battery EVs in the market.

In China, in order to keep up with the fast speed of electrification, we have already begun introducing battery EV models developed together with our local joint venture companies in China. While envisioning the introduction of battery EV models from the Honda brand, we will continue utilizing local resources in China and introduce more battery EV models in a timely manner to fulfill local market needs in China.

In Europe and Japan, we will introduce the Honda e, a new battery EV model, which was recently introduced as a prototype at the Geneva Motor Show.

To summarize, Honda will popularize and improve the business feasibility of electrified vehicles by focusing on hybrid vehicles and battery EVs


Full Summary here:


https://hondanews.com/releases/summary-of-honda-ceo-speech-on-automobile-business-direction


geo

 

jdonalds posted "Honda said they plan to sell 75,000 Clarity cars over 5 years 2018 to 2023." in https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/2018-2019-or-nothing.5387/#post-58520

He may have been referring to this news article: https://www.wardsauto.com/2017-new-york-international-auto-show/honda-details-clarity-phev-ev-targets-75000-us-sales from the 2017 New York auto show.

 

As usual, these journos stubbornly ignore the Clarity, but this is a real piece of good news for all of us!

 

Just because a model is discontinued doesn't mean it's value is diminished.
The day Insightman puts his Gen1 Insight up for sale, it will break the internet.
They just don't make all aluminum spaceship bodied cars with a manual trans and that get almost 100 MPG like they used to.
When a car goes out of production, it's quite possible that that the car cost more to build than it could be priced at.
That's value in my book.

 

I'm sure they want the ZEV credits, so they will sell some type of plugin vehicle. They aren't going to reveal what they are doing though until soon before something changes.

 

I have been told by both Honda dealers in Tulsa, OK (not a hot market for plug-ins) that they can't order any more Clarity Plug-ins. They don't any in stock, new or used) and not interested in selling them. Standard answer of we can try to locate one for you. I can do my own CarGurus search.

I don't know if this sheds any light on the future Honda plans speculated in thread but it is turning me off to buying a Clarity. I like what I read about it, but have not been able to find one to test drive.

Keep the news flowing about what is really going on with the plug-ins future.

Bob Strattan, Tulsa, OK
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
2008 Chevrolet Tahoe 2-mode Hybrid
2002 Toyota Prius Gen 1
1997 Solectria Force EV

 

I wonder if the reason why 2019 Clarity sales are well below Prius Prime sales is supply, not so much demand. In Q4 2018, the reverse was true- with Clarities outselling Primes.

Even though the Clarity PHEV was recently introduced in Japan and is also sold in Canada- both markets pale in comparison to the US.

With the Clarity PHEV/BEV series on the cutting edge, and with all the fanfare of what it represents to Honda's future- why pull it it now?

Further,, it may well meet its target 70k sales once demand for EVs accelerates and/or they produce enough vehicles to dell.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

Five years ago, the late Sergio Marchionne said of his company's Fiat 500e BEV:
"I hope you don’t buy it because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000. I’m honest enough to tell you that."

I'm certain Honda loses money on every Clarity they make and the fact that they have been selling way below MSRP isn't pleasing the company's bean counters or shareholders. FWIW, Fiat's still making the 500e--as a compliance car. However, they sell so few of them that they still have to pay $2 billion dollars to Tesla to buy the credits they need to meet emissions requirements.

 

Aside from having an orphaned car with little resale value, it would really be a pity if Honda abandoned the Clarity. I hope this doesn't happen.

 

I hope Honda at least stays in the biz to sell 200,000 to allow federal incentives - like Chevy did with the Volt before it's demise...

 

The bold portions are the most relevant parts of your post.
If they are indeed not interested in selling them (very likely), the "unable to order them" part is likely B.S.
They want you to consider vehicles they do have in inventory and will tell you most anything that will turn you off from a vehicle they don't carry

 

Find a dealer out of state - there should be other dealers that are "interested" in selling them.

Someone on this forum who had this same issue, wanted to fly out from east coast to west coast to pick one up and still save money compared to getting one from a local dealer!

 

So $2b / $14k is 143,000. I wonder if they could find economies of scale selling that many BEVs?

 

This is all hear-say but I thought I would share it with the group - not new, but just another data point.

As I've mentioned before, my wife works in the Electric Industry and is a part of a group at her workplace that is trying to guide the cities and towns they work with in preparing for future technology. They are going to have an electric vehicle event and almost every local dealership has offered to bring one or more EV or PHEV models (Tesla, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, etc).

The Honda dealership today told them that since the Clarity is being discontinued they would not be participating. BTW several of the participating dealers are in the same "family" as the Honda dealership.

geo

 

I'd be amazed to find out that the Clarity will be offered only in Canada in 2020.

 

Are you by any chance located in a ZEV state?

 

Nope, North Carolina.

geo

 

Perhaps availability distribution to ZEV states only...

 

I put together several ride and drive (and other dealer participation) events a year. The excuses from dealers that don't participate are numerous. Whatever reason they give, the bottom line is some want to support EV's, some don't. They then have to decide if the time/manpower/hassle of an off-site event is worth it.

Even had the local Nissan dealer refuse to participate in our NDEW event >1 mile from their store (the LEAF is the "exclusive automotive sponsor") even though corporate put $2,500 on the table for them to do it. That year we had 6+ dealerships that did a total over 100 test drives during the event (the regional Nissan rep borrowed cars from the dealer and did it himself).

Dealers are motivated to sell what they have on the lot. A dealer that only has/gets a few Clarity's a month is unlikely to participate in a ride and drive event. The reason they give is random on not necessarily related to the truth or based in fact.