The 1st generation of the Clarity was a fuel-cell powered electric vehicle offered by Honda only as a lease in select areas in the United States. However, things changed with the 2nd generation of the car. They released the 2018 Honda Clarity not that long ago and the car is a vast improvement over its predecessor. For starters, the new model is now available as a fuel-cell powered car, an electric or a plug-in hybrid. The latter has been offered to start with the 2018 car and it is currently available for sale through select Honda dealers. It seems the deliveries will start in the near future but until then people will be able to customize the car to their own liking.
2018 Honda Clarity
2018 Honda Clarity Price
Despite being released back in 2016, the car doesn’t actually share its platform with Honda’s other new vehicles. Instead, the Clarity is based on the same platform as the older generation Accord. Because of that, the car is both heavier and less impressive to drive than their newest models. Luckily though this doesn’t really matter for many people so if we don’t take these drawbacks into account the new Clarity is quite an impressive car. It is reasonably cheap with the plug-in starting at well under the $60,000 base price of the hydrogen-powered version. The electric is going to be sold for around $35,000 which is also quite good considering all models will come with all the usual commodities as standard.
Design
One of the most interesting quirks about the 2018 Honda Clarity has to be its design. There is no question about the fact it doesn’t resemble any other car on the road and that is great! The car boasts a really low front end sporting an aggressive grille and really slim headlights. The L-shaped slim DRLs make it seem slightly wider than it really is while the splitter on the bumper has an actual function. The rear is slightly more unusual though. Here the wheels are partially covered in order not to disturb the airflow around the car.
On top of that, the Clarity boasts the wedge-shape design usually found on electric cars. However, it is a far longer car than pretty much any other hybrid or electric car at this price point. Because of that its rear might look a bit unusual, more like a combination between a hatchback and a sedan. The good part about this is the fact the trunk is easily accessible and on top of that, massive.
Interior
Even though its price may sugwedge-shapedise, the 2018 Honda Clarity is a really well-equipped car. As standard, it comes with a large infotainment screen which offers both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The instrument cluster features a large color LCD screen showing all the necessary information while the low driving position makes the driver feel like in a coupe.
There is more than enough room on both the front and rear seats and the coolest part has to be the rear bench. This offers two individual seats with a third one in the middle which can fold down and reveal a set of cup holders and an armrest. There is also a set of AC vents for the back as well as dedicated USB plugs.
2018 Honda Clarity Powertrain
The 2018 Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid is being powered by a 1.5 liter Atkinson cycle 4-cylinder gas engine. This doesn’t drive the wheels but instead, it drives a generator that powers a 17 kWh battery pack. This is enough to give the electric motor enough juice for up to 42 miles of all electric range which is comparable with the other plug-in cars on the market. Honda didn’t release the official EPA figures for when running in gasoline mode but it is safe to assume the car is capable of delivering north of 40 MPG on average.
The fuel-cell model of the Clarity, on the other hand, boasts a 170 horsepower electric motor which powers the front wheels. This is being fed by a fuel cell which is powered by hydrogen. The end result is as much as 366 miles on a single tank which is considerably better than any other electric car. The big drawbacks are the availability of hydrogen throughout the US and the price of the car which is near $60,000.
