What's the REAL EV range of the Honda Clarity battery?
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
- I recorded my actual mileage against the predicted EV miles for a series of trips to find out the real-world efficiency of my 2018 Honda Clarity battery. I also explore some ways to optimize battery range so you can get even farther on a charge. Some of the results were surprising!
Timeline:
0:00 start/intro
1:22 methods
2:43 results
5:30 analysis
7:47 conclusions
Other Saving Green Honda Clarity Videos here:
• Honda Clarity
Check out Brad’s great channel and the BradOnCars Honda Clarity mileage test:
• 2018 Honda Clarity - W...
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Have you found any other factors that are affecting your EV efficiency?
This was a fantastic video! Thank you so much for sharing this information. Just to let you know, in the last four days I’ve been following your advice and charging my car’s battery at almost 50% and I’m getting way better mileage. Almost 24 miles on the first 1/2 of the battery. So, I’ll keep on doing it this way.
Have a wonderful day!
Interesting analysis! I’ve been driving a Clarity for three years now (BEV for two, PHEV now) and have found the two primary factors impacting range are outside temp and avg speed. My 2018 PHEV seems less affected by summer heat (AC use) than my 2017 BEV did, but cold weather and using the heater had a similar and noticeable impact on EV range in both of my Clarities. Highway driving, regardless of outside temp, seems to have the most significant impact on EV range for me...especially if I drive faster than 65 or so. Still, I average about 40 EV miles in mixed driving, which is enough for most of my days.
Thanks for the info! I didn’t parse out the highway miles in this analysis, but i do think it was less than 5% overall. I also kept the AC at 74 deg throughout. My biggest surprise was the dramatic drop in predicted EV range as I conducted subsequent tests depleting the battery.
Why did you switch from Bev to phev?
@@martik778 I was fully convinced that I’d never buy another car with an ICE after living with my Clarity BEV for over two years. The 80 mile range was plenty for a normal day, and in fact, I realized that most days I could be fine with half of that. Since the lease on my 2017 Clarity was ending soon, I decided to start looking for a replacement early and really only considered two cars - a Chevy Bolt and a Clarity PHEV. (Note that Honda stopped making the Clarity BEV so it was not an option).
Given how much we absolutely loved our time with the Clarity, and knowing that a 30-40mile EV range would still be enough to ensure we are mostly EV in our daily driving, we opted for a used Clarity (2018 Touring) over leasing a new Bolt. It’s the only time I’ve ever bought a newer version of a car I’ve previously owned, as I usually get ready for a new car every few years, but this time, we decided we love driving the Clarity enough that we wanted to buy one and keep for a while.
We have had the Clarity PHEV since March and have only filled up the tiny 7 gallon gas tank a few times...and each time, it was because we took a road trip in it and left our SUV at home. In those instances, getting 50+ mpg on the road trips meant we were getting 2-3x the gas mileage we otherwise would have in our other car, so it’s one more reason we went with a PHEV instead.
I’m still a huge EV fan, but for the specific type of driving we do, a PHEV makes a lot of sense.
@@briankaiser694 This scenario of
How many mpg's do you get on this car? Do you still feel the same way about the car today? Has it lost some battery life?
I want to buy a 2018 clarity touring but want some owner opinions. Thanks
Interesting video. Thanks for taking the time to do the math.
Thanks, Howie!
Thank you for this video. Very helpful. I am going to record my next 20 trips and charges to calculate the efficiency of my battery. My Clarity get terrible EV range. I have a 2018 with 120,000 miles and my EV range during December (living in NorCal, temp ranges from 50-60 degrees in my city) is 25 miles. During the warmer months, EV range is 35 miles. The Hv range is oddly low too. I fill my gas tank to full, 6 to 6.5 gallons and my HV range use to show 265 miles now I only shows 210 miles. I will attempt to record the odometer miles for my gas range as well, after my battery depletes. I use ChargePoint chargers, so I can always tell how many KWh my battery used for the charge session. I’m always getting between 11.4 to 11.7 kWh on each charge. Yet, the Clarity calculates my EV range as 25 miles during December and 35 miles during August, for the exact same KWh.
Yeah, that definitely makes sense, as you were going along I wondered, are most people going to bring the battery down to 0? I would think it would be common sense to just charge your car at the end of the day, or now I guess we would charge it during the day and use it at night if you are working remotely. I would hope that people would treat it like a phone or OPE, just charge it up when not in use and let the power management systems take car of the charging speeds.
A good PM system will extend the life of the battery and it’s efficiency, and hopefully EV owners will charge frequently to maximize their efficiency, and avoid having to fill up with gas.
I totally agree frequent charging is better for this car. The power module is pretty accurate on the Clarity, I think, and adapts quickly (as demonstrated) to driving habits. It's interesting comparing the optimal charge cycles for smaller batteries like this to the full EVs, since there is some debate as to whether "topping" off the larger batteries is ideal, since it limits regen efficiency.
This matches my experience. When I take short drives and keep the car fully charged, my estimated EV range creeps up. Right now it’s over 60. However the minute I take that trip to Jacksonville and return home with no miles on the EV range, the overnight charge will drop to the mid 50’s. Then it takes a few days of driving locally and keeping the car topped up for the EV estimate to get back to the high 50’s or low 60’s.
Thanks for sharing, Roger!
So the range estimator is like a mirror mostly reflecting your previous actual range and projecting for future range.
Anyone know if honda is releasing an update for hybrid button i really hate that i have to hit it every time. Dealer had my car fully charged on test drive and at time of purchase there werent many videos on it . I assumed it would be like my prius plug in
Also, at the 6:00 mark when you show the chart of predicted EV miles vs car mileage, could it be partially accounted for by weather and temperature? I'm wondering if your first 4 data points, when predicted range was around the 50 mile mark, were from when temperatures were lower and you didn't have to run the A/C as strong?
It’s a good thought, but the temp hasn’t dipped much honestly, the average is still in the 80s for us in Florida even now, so I don’t think the AC was a factor. However, I didn’t formally plot temperature as a distinct data point for analysis. Perhaps I can look into this and other variables in the future.
What year clarity did you do this test on and would you recommend a Honda Clarity. I'm interested in an plug in or hybrid vehicle. Do you have a car you recommend that's in the $30k price range?
Hey! Sorry for the delayed reply. Mine is a 2018 and I would definitely still recommend the vehicle, if you can find it. Most used offers run in the $25-$35k range from what I've seen, depending on mileage and trim. I think the PHEV offerings with reasonable range are quite limited, basically Kia/Hyundai and Toyota are leading the pack. The Tucsan/Sorento PHEV are smaller SUVs with about 33mi of EV range for $33k, the RAV4 Prime is a little pricier at close to $40k with 42mi range, and the Prius Prime only offers 25mi range for around $30k. The Clarity is still the best value/range offering in my opinion. Volvo, BMW, Mini etc are all more $ with less range. If you need more overall mileage and can't go EV, then there are tons of decent traditional hybrids under $30k that all over 45-55mpg.
@@SavingGreen thank you.
I find in good weather I consistently get 48 miles. Dipping a bit if its hotter or colder than 70f.
that's great, Josh. I must be a heavy foot because I rarely get >45 unless the AC is off. Still more than enough to get me through the day charging every 1-2 days overnight.
Battery Longevity keep it above 20% and stop charge at 80% or charge and discharge to limits and buy a new battery in 6 years. So what costs more the extra gas or a new battery?
Fortunately, the Clarity is covered by an 8-yr/100k battery warranty, so the extra wear on the battery is less of an issue. In general, keeping the discharge cycles between your range is advisable for LiOn batteries, but the Clarity can be safely "topped off" since it's a smaller battery and can still tangibly benefit from regen unlike the Tesla's. I try to keep my from about 30--100% for optimal performance. Only time will tell!
Very Interesting vidio. So I plan on buying a relatives 2018 clarity in two months. When the battery is depleted that gas motor starts automatically and then its a regular hybrid without doing anything , Correct?? We make a 200 mile trip regularly.
Hi Lyle. Yes, you have it correct. Once the battery is depleted, the ICE engine automatically kick in pretty seamlessly and the car functions like a normal hybrid - that means that upon breaking or slowing down, the battery will recoup a little charge to help the engine like a normal hybrid would.
@@SavingGreen Are you able to switch to the ICE before your battery is depleted or does it have to get to 0% to switch?
@@pinchezardina Yes, you can press the "HV" button on the center console at any time to manually engage the ICE. Sometimes on shorter highway trips I'll use HV as it's slightly more efficient than using the battery at constant, higher speeds. You can also select different "EV" modes including Eco and Sport as well using the same approach.
@@pinchezardina Switch using button to HV , then the battery isn't used but it will act like a Hybrid and slightly recharge battery with braking and down hills.
You won't get 47 miles in city driving and especially with the AC running. The 47 mile figure from honda is based on "Mixed" driving with some highway and some non-highway driving, but not in stop and go driving. The test cycle the EPA uses is not stop and go, but does have some stop and go. It attempts to match the "average" driving conditions. When cars are driven on secondary roads and streets with no traffic congestion, the Clarity will benefit much more from Regen than it does in stop and go, and if you were doing a lot of stop and go, that explains the difference. I get about 52 miles on a battery driving in town during non-peak traffic and places where there is not a traffic light ever two blocks. I have gotten as high as 54 miles. I never get that in stop and go. The point is that unless you have the same conditions as the "average" that the rating is based on, you will get fewer if there is more highway and more stop and go (less regen) and more miles if you are in typical suburban type driving, where you can coast to stoplights and regen frequently.
You assume the battery health is being reduced, could the actual cause of a reduction in estimated range be a result of the car learning what the actual efficiency is?
Hi MM, I actually agree with you! I believe the car's battery is less efficient lower in the charge cycle, and by sequentially depleting the battery, the computer "learns" that the overall range will decrease for the next cycle. I did not mean to suggest that the battery health is reduced, simply at different charge levels the power delivery changes. Hope that clarifies things!
I am in so cal
When I owned my home I was getting 199 as I never used the engine but since I moved to an apartment and my commute is now mostly highway i get 57.4 mpg as I can’t charge at home and can only charge at work. The parking lot here uses a blink set up which for some reason I can never get full charge. Charge point I get full but blink it seems to stop charging at various points. I am still happy with the car as very few other cars with a 52 miles one way commute will get that mpg.
Thanks or sharing you HV experience! I'm fortunate to rarely use the gas engine, so I'm mostly focused on my BEV efficiency, but it's great to see how great the real-world MPG is in HV mode. I rarely charge outside of home, but I have experienced some dropouts at some retail/garage charging stations as well.
FYI, I'm putting out another video tomorrow with a year's worth of EV data to update the findings with more statistical power.
Happy New Year, Robert!
@@SavingGreen
Thanks for the info! On the Honda link app it shows it turns off due to “high C02” does that mean the batteries are just too hot? It only seems to happen on blink chargers not ChargePoint
Hmm I haven’t gotten that message. Every time for me it’s been seemingly random. does that message happen when charging after both HV driving and EV driving?
@@SavingGreen
Usually only on blink chargers but when I charge the battery is dead due to long commute
Ah ok. Makes sense…. I’d be interested if Honda has any info on that. I haven’t used Blink chargers personally.
My range recently improved. Not sure i completely understand why. I was consistently getting about 36 miles at 60mph. On My last trip i got 43 miles ev range. I inflated my tires to 39psi and did several short trips and plugged in each time. Im now getting around 50 miles in town on my 2018 Clarity with 53k miles. I think the short trips for wich i would recharge after each one, had an impact on my battery. The honda manual does talk about exercising your battery.
Nice, Neal. Thanks for sharing. I think for me the range is maxed out when the battery is between 30-70% before charging, but I’m typically getting low 40s around town now.
@@SavingGreen one thing i have learned is proper tire inflation is key. I inflated my tires to 39 psi (for in town winter driving) and a week later some were down to 30psi. So regular checking of tire pressure is critical on a 4k pound car. I prefer a little high then it will settle down to correct pressure.
That’s a great point. I wish the Clarity had a real-time psi gauge like others do…
@@SavingGreen what helped me is taking notice of how my front tire looked on flat ground after inflating to 39 psi. Then a week later it looked a little flatter. So i rechecked and it was at 30psi
Is there any way you can post your actual data? I'm having a hard time seeing how you derived your calculations for efficiency based on what you have shown in this video. Are the predicted EV miles and odometer readings your only data points?
Yes, the data is the difference between the estimated EV mileage and the odometer readings. For 9 trips I documented each reading every time I started the vehicle until the battery had expired, for the remaining 7 trips I had compared how the readings changed for only part of the discharge cycle.
Basically if the EV range went from 40 to 35 on a trip, but the odometer went up by 4 miles, then I’d assume an 80% efficiency for that trip. Does that make sense to you?
@@SavingGreen Got it. It seems then that your methodology says more about the accuracy (or lack thereof) of the predicted EV range rather than the actual efficiency of the car itself. In order to determine efficiency, what really matters isn't so much what the car's computer is predicting for the range, but how much actual energy was used for the actual miles driven. Methodology for that would be something like start with a fully charged battery, then drive a certain number of miles, and then measure how much energy it takes to recharge the battery to full again. That energy would then be the amount that was used to drive those miles. It is the equivalent of seeing how many gallons of gas it takes to refill a tank after driving a certain number of miles.
I have a 2018 Clarity myself and I've been consistently averaging over 4.2 miles/kWh for my daily commute. My drive is 32 miles round trip, and it takes about 7 kWh or less to recharge.
Yes, I agree that accuracy is perhaps a more appropriate term. However, since I ran the tests on a complete charge each time, I did calculate my total actual mileage to be average 38 miles per charge cycle or 2.55mi/kWh, so definitely much less than what you are quoting. I do believe the discharging the battery sequentially affects the efficiency, at least based on how I interpreted the data.
@@SavingGreen I noticed on the first page of the data you showed in the video that you did a number of short trips. One consideration is that with multiple short trips, esp. with Florida heat, perhaps you're using quite a bit of energy cooling the car down each time? The A/C system does use quite a bit of energy, and it takes much more energy generally to cool a car down at the start of the trip than it does to maintain a set temperature.
@@kendallpayne5979 in other words, I meant to look at both accuracy and efficiency :)
I’m in Michigan and in the spring the predicted miles are fake but more accurate in the summer. Also, an electric miles are about 75% on the highway as opposed to the city. Not enough data.
Yeah temperature has a huge impact on mileage. Agree that highway also takes a big hit due to air resistance and lack of stop/go regen. Thanks for commenting, Chris!
When he would fully discharge the battery and charge it using the kilowatt meter seeing 14.55 kilowatts drawn from the wall you have to take into account for about 5% efficiency loss because of converting AC to DC and stepping up the voltage so when you take that 14.55 kilowatts and you divide it by 20 and multiply it by 19 that is the actual amount of kilowatt capacity usable of the battery the rest of the 17 kilowatts of battery is not usable and that is so you do not cause degradation on the battery part of that is locked off in the bottom end and the other half of that is blocked off in the top end also the HV AC system is a heat pump system in that car and if you get in and the car has been sitting in the sun and you need to run the AC it's going to take a considerable little chunk of energy or vice versa if you get in the car is cold and you need to warm it up those are going to affect your EV range heavily as well as given the extremely high efficiency of an electric vehicle versus an internal combustion engine the faster you go the larger of an increase in watts per mile you are going to have to use not to mention if you're doing Highway cruising then you're not stopping and doing regenerative braking and putting charge back into the battery there is a number of factors that actually affect the efficiency of this vehicle that come into play but you can't ignore the analysis of the fact that he was showing a much lower overall loss of range compared to what he actually drove on the top half of the battery versus on the bottom half and that is because the battery voltage is not as high as the voltage of the electric motor in the car so as the battery discharges it has to draw more and more amperage to give the same amount of wattage to the electric motor which actually causes the battery to deplete faster cuz now it's consuming more amperage and less voltage and amperage is the actual storage capacity of the battery so the top portion of the battery allows you to have a battery voltage closer to the actual motor voltage which allows you to have a higher efficiency because you draw less amps in vehicles like a Tesla you do not have to worry about this because the battery voltage is actually higher then the voltage of the motors that are using those batteries so you don't have that dramatic of an efficiency loss once the battery gets into the lower portion of the battery which means that the efficiency is more consistent throughout the entire charge range of the battery in the 400 volt battery in the Tesla versus the 300 volt battery in a plug-in hybrid because the motors are 360 volts in all of these vehicles because that is the true and proper three-phase voltage and that is what gives you the best efficiency as an electric vehicle running 3-phase as well.
Hi Trevor, thanks for the detailed response. Yes, I had commented earlier that while I didn't account for the 5-10% conversion losses, the price per kWh paid I think is the more relevant metric, but you are correct that the noted capacity is likely even less than reported given the inefficiencies. No doubt as you stated that heating/cooling dramatically effects efficiency as well. I didn't realize the differences between the voltage on 3-phase systems - thanks for that insight!
Interesting question, I’d say that the physical size of the battery would be a challenge to safely install, not to mention the electronic wizardly needed to install an additional battery and controlling the computer to draw power sequentially. Def beyond my pay grade! Maybe someone else with more engineering experience could speak to the feasibility…
I think you’re focusing too much on the guess o meter on the dash. Those miles of EV range are based on an imperfect algorithm which Is trying to adapt constantly to what you are doing.
Hi Michael, yeah my goal was indeed to compare how accurate the “guess-o-meter” is compared to actual achieved mileage. I’m working on updating this with more emphasis on the driving mileage compared to energy usage. Thanks for the feeedback!
The reduced battery capacity you quoted was not correct. You don't have 100% effeciency of power going into your car to energy stored and again an ineffefiency in pulling that power out. Your kWh/mile represents miles per energy purchased.
Hi Brian, thanks for the feedback. I do believe the usable capacity, while it certainly varies, is less than the 17kWh rated, as some capacity is not user accessible. And yes, you raise a good point that there are efficiency losses, but I used a "plug-in" voltimeter as opposed to a third party charging station so while there is about a 5-15% efficiency loss on a 120V charger, since I used the same method across all tests, this shouldn't account for much variation. I have another video on my channel that incorporates this factor when comparing different plug in vehicles. If anything, if I was drawing 14.78kWh from the outlet, stored capacity would be a little less, but "miles/kWh purchased" is really what matters in my opinion since that's what your paying for anyway!