Assessing the Honda Clarity range: how electric cars fit in, and whyAssessing the Honda Clarity range: how electric cars fit in, and why

The 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell is the only model of Honda’s newest sedan presently on sale, though an all-electric version will arrive later this year.
The hydrogen-powered mid-size sedan with a rated 366 miles of range is the one that’s gotten by far the most publicity from Honda, as its technology halo vehicle.
Last month, at the New York auto show, Honda unveiled the second and third models: the all-electric and plug-in hybrid versions that round out the three-car lineup.
DON’T MISS: Honda Clarity Electric, Plug-In Hybrid revealed at NY auto show
That leads to a handful of questions about how the three different models fit into Honda’s plans, and how the company plans to promote and market them—and in what volumes.
To answer some of these questions, we spent an hour at the show talking to Jay Guzowski, the senior manager of product planning for the Clarity range.
We started by asking how the decision to develop the Clarity was made and what parameters the company placed on its future product.
fcx clarity fuelcell motorauthority 007
In particular, we were curious about the roughly 80-mile range rating Honda projects for the Clarity Electric, which uses what is obviously a fairly small lithium-ion battery pack.
Guzowski said that the Clarity project started as three separate green vehicles were ending: the previous-generation FCX Clarity fuel-cell sedan, the Accord Plug-In Hybrid, and the Fit EV electric car.
All were low-volume: about 200 FCX Claritys were built globally, and 1,000 and 1,100 of each of the last two were delivered in the U.S. (Some of the Fit EVs have now been re-leased as used cars and are still on the road.)
A MUST-READ: 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell: first drive of hydrogen-powered sedan
To maximize the effectiveness of its investments, Honda chose to combine successors to all three vehicles into a single vehicle—although, Guzowski said, it was clear that the hydrogen fuel-cell version was viewed in Japan as the most important and most visible of the three versions.
The FCX Clarity and the plug-in Accord had been large, comfortable, mid-size sedans. The major complaint from Fit EV owners, meanwhile, was that they loved their cars but wished they were larger and had more space for people and cargo.
That set the basic size and body type of what came to be called the 2017 Honda Clarity.
2014 Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid
A green five-passenger mid-size sedan, Guzowski pointed out, was largely “white space” when the program began in 2012 and 2013, let alone one with multiple powertrain options.
The only other such vehicle, the all-electric Tesla Model S hatchback sedan, had just entered the market. At that time, we’d note, its success and sales of well over 100,000 vehicles were by no means guaranteed.
The hydrogen Clarity would let Honda meet its commitments to the Japanese government’s “hydrogen economy” program, he said, and was always earmarked to be sold both in Japan and the U.S.
CHECK OUT: Honda Clarity EV electric car to have only 80 miles of range: report
Japanese product planners were also interested in the plug-in hybrid model—envisioned as a much higher-volume variant.
But the all-electric version was “not of high interest” to the Japanese planners, Guzowski recounted, noting that the company saw electric cars suffering from “challenges with the grid and reliability” of charging infrastructure.
The Clarity program solidified in 2014, with the fuel-cell version “leading a little” because it had the toughest packaging challenges.

2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid debuts at 2017 New York auto show
Those included two large high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks, one under the rear seat and a second behind it at the front of the trunk.
The brief for the rest of the fuel-cell powertrain was to fit it all under the hood, in the same space as a V-6 engine and transmission would occupy, including the fuel-cell stack, the electric drive motor, and associated power electronics.
That left plenty of under-hood room for the plug-in hybrid version’s 1.5-liter Atkinson cycle 4-cylinder engine, which both generates electricity to power a 135-kw (181-hp) electric motor and recharges a 17-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack at the rear of the car.
DEC 2017 NEWS: First 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell sedans delivered in California
That battery capacity will provide “at least 40 miles” of EPA-rated range, Honda has said, but further specifications and details won’t come until very late this year. (The Clarity Plug-In, unlike the other two, will go on sale as a 2018 model rather than a 2017.)
The all-electric version of Clarity, meanwhile, has a larger battery, a 25.5-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion pack that sends electricity to a slightly less powerful 120-kilowatt (161-horsepower) electric motor driving the front wheels, rated at up to 221 lb-ft of torque.
The biggest challenge of designing one car to accommodate these three very different powertrains, Guzowski said, was managing the weight distribution.
2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell, Santa Barbara, CA, March 20172017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell, Santa Barbara, CA, March 20172017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell, Santa Barbara, CA, March 2017
The battery packs for the two plug-in versions are located under the rear seat, ahead of the rear axle, adding weight at the rear, where the smaller of the two hydrogen tanks sat.
Even the all-electric version uses an air-cooled battery pack, rather than liquid thermal conditioning, meaning there are no radiators to compensate by adding weight at the front of the Clarity Electric.
The engineers “moved the pieces around” as best they could, he said, including such heavy items as the Clarity’s standard 12-volt accessory battery.
The elephant in the room, though, is the low battery range of the Clarity Electric.
When it hits the market later this year, the battery-powered Clarity will have a range roughly the same as that of the tiny Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, and lower than the rated ranges of every compact electric hatchback sold today.
Chevrolet Bolt Concept – 2015 Detroit Auto Show live photos
So where did that decision to offer only 80 miles come from?
Guzowski was appropriately discreet, but he did admit that by January 2015, the program and its planners and engineers were “well on our way” to the final vehicle introduced last month.
That was the month in which General Motors CEO Mary Barra dropped a bombshell at the Detroit auto show, announcing what became the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car

Honda Clarity lineup: Electric, Plug-In Hybrid, Fuel Cell, at 2017 New York auto show
The all-electric hatchback, she said, would carry a starting price of $37,500 and offer a rated range of 200 miles or more (it came in at 238 miles).
The Bolt EV went on sale last December, the same month as the first Clarity Fuel Cell.
It’s worth noting some other factors as well:

the Japanese planners weren’t that interested in the all-electric model, as Guzowski said;
the experience of Fit EV owners at the time seemed to indicate that the little electric car’s 80-mile range was fine, but that it needed to be bigger; and
commuting distances in Japan are far lower than in the U.S., meaning that even today electric-car planners see U.S. demands for 200 miles of range as excessive.

Added together, the battery size (and consequently the range) had been set by the time the Bolt announcement shook up the expectations of electric-car buyers.
2013 Honda Fit EV drive event, Pasadena, CA, June 2012
Finally, Honda said in its press release that it expects to deliver about 75,000 vehicles from the entire Clarity lineup over four years.
Assuming that would be model years 2017 through 2020, here’s our prediction for U.S. sales (including lease-only fuel-cell and electric versions). These were not confirmed by Guzowski, we should point out:

Clarity Fuel Cell: 1,000 each year for 2017 through 2020, totaling 4,000
Clarity Electric: 1,000 each year for 2018 through 2020 (and perhaps 500 for 2017?), totaling 3,500
Clarity Plug-In: 22,500 each year for 2018 through 2020, totaling 67,500

In other words, the only important Clarity version with a plug that Honda will sell in volume is the plug-in hybrid model.
That’s also the only one that will be sold by all Honda dealers; the hydrogen car is limited to California, the only state with notable fueling infrastructure, and the all-electric model will be sold in only a handful of states to be specified later.
2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid debuts at 2017 New York auto show
So we look forward to driving the Clarity Electric later this year—but we’re more interested in the plug-in hybrid Clarity.
That’s because it’s the only one that most Americans are ever likely to see on their local roads.
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