The future is here!.

PianotunerNJ

Well-Known Member
ok, so recently (October), my wife decided she was ready to go car shopping and scale back from a big unwieldy Mazda CX-9 crossover. Kids are in high school, less big family rides with extra junk so a sedan will suit us fine. Plus the Mazda was a 20mpg vehicle, give or take. Also, I’ve been driving my Nissan XTerra (2010) for 140,000 miles and again, a 20mpg vehicle.

She narrowed her search down to the new Honda Accord, nice car, hybrid available, seemed worth a look. We were off to the local Honda dealer.

In the showroom, we took a few minutes to poke around the selection of cars, due diligence and all, and sure enough, we stumbled upon a gem. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a car with a sticker in the window that claimed 110 mpg in big numbers at the top! Could this be for real? It was a Honda Clarity. A car that’s a hair smaller than the Accord, has a slightly weird style, awkward rear wheel aesthetic, looks like a hatchback but isn’t, but I was intrigued by the tech. It’s a plug in hybrid which means it has a battery for electric only driving, and a gas motor for increased range. Claiming upto 47 miles of electric before gas is needed (conditions apply), it has a total range of about 350 miles with electric and gas total and gets about 45mpg on gas as a standard hybrid. So, after some test driving she decided to pull the trigger on the touring model, leather, few extra bells.

We went ahead and installed a home charging unit for about a grand, set up on 240volt line, 32 amps, charges car fully in about 2.5 hours ata cost of about $.75 per charge (according to online research, not my personal calculation for the record). Also, she has charging stations at her office (big corporate office) so it’s possible for her to charge both at home and at work. She’s now commuting on 99% electric and has pinned the meter on her dash at 199.9 mpg.

With my XTerra getting long in tooth, and being a pig and all, and after experiencing how nice a car the Clarity is, I decided I needed one too! I got the base model for a few grand less, no leather, no power seats, but same drivetrain and safety tech, same efficiency and same comfortable ride. So, now we’re a pair of nerds with matching cars (hers white, mine black). Even though I only charge at home and do burn some fuel most days, I’m averaging about 125mpg through my busy Christmas season, not too shabby.

The best part of this story is that, due to the large battery these cars have, it qualifies for a $7500 federal tax credit, and in some states there are state incentives that help offset charger costs, ez pass tolls, and other savings. So, if you are fortunate enough to be earning at a level that obligates you to a federal tax expense over $7500, you may claim that credit in full. Also, turns out the price can be negotiated down a bit so we shaved about 13% off the sticker price for each car. In my case it was a total of about 11k off the sticker price. With the credit and negotiated price, this is a really nice car for the money, and it barely uses any gas.

When you do need gas it has a massive 7 gallon tank to account for about 300 miles of range, so generally your pumping like 5/6 gallons or under $15 a tank by today’s price of about $2.50 a gallon here in NJ.

I’ve waited all my life to get my first electric car. I know this one is a compromise, but the fact that we, as a household, went from $500+ a month in fuel costs to about $50. I was over $300 a month and the savings now makes most of my car payment, and I’m polluting much less which feels good. I know gas is cheap now, but with the cliamate crises poised to become public issue number 1, I doubt cheap gas is long for this world. Either way, the clarity is part of the solution, and I’m thrilled with mine.
 
For anyone curious, we did look at other (American made) options such as the Chevy Volt, but it was more expensive and much smaller in terms of interior and seating. The Honda is a great balance of size, performance, efficiency and cost. Seemed to be the best all around deal out there, but I didn’t test drive every plug in on the market I will admit.
 
Stock warantee is 3/36k but I upped it to 7/100k for a few extra bucks. There’s always concern for the battery tech long term but worth the low risk and at some point an improvement in battery tech could mean better performance down the road, who knows.
 
There’s always concern for the battery tech long term

But that's why I'm asking about parts warranty, do they cover battery replacement?

Batteries don't last and I'v read stuff that a battery set will cost $5000-$7000 for the parts alone. You then have labour cost and disposal fees.

Then the fact all batteries loose performance over time so the car is gradually loosing performance. Say they last three years before a final failure, but in that three years time they degrade cutting the cars range and power. I would imaging through that time it will also put more ware and tear on the charging system.

A car running on fuel these days is going to run 200,000 miles before one would really see any degrading of power if at all.

You did a lot of math posting the savings but are not taking in account of battery cost, your using up power of the batteries, not just the the cost of the power to charge them.

Lets say the car need a battery replacement after three years and total cost is $7000. Divided by three is $2,334 a year, divided by 12 is $195 a month, divided by 4 is $49 a week. Your $7500 federal tax credit is used right here, they pay for your first battery change, I'm glad I am paying for you to drive around to work. However the next one is on your dime, and having two of these it will be a $14,000 hit all at once.

I fill up my 99 Chevy 1500 silverado truck with a 350 engine and 267,000 miles on it that still gets 18 mpg about once a week in a 20gal tank. I drive it to and from work 200 miles a week so I just top it off 17-18 gal. at a cost of around 50-60 bucks. It's still fast as hell stepping into it so performance is still there. Did I mention I bought the truck 4 years ago for $3500:)

I'm just not seeing your savings or convenance of this car, in the long run it will cost a lot more to maintain.
 
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I saw on youtube where a fella bought an inexpensive Prius with a bum battery and then got a $1000 battery rebuild kit. And rebuilding the battery was fairly easy; mainly just removing the old cells and installing new ones in the housing that holds the cells. 3 hour job.

 
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I saw on youtube where a fella bought a Prius with a bum battery cheap and then bought a battery rebuild kit for about $1000. And rebuilding the battery was easy; mainly just removing the old cells and installing new ones in the housing that holds the cells.

That would be nice if that worked out but I'd be worried about a few small things. Fire and Liability
 
Even if only a quarter of the population actually pays taxes, without factoring corporate taxes, that’s still just 1/100 of a cent per taxpayer. (Edited because I think I math’d wrong)
 
I saw on youtube where a fella bought an inexpensive Prius with a bum battery and then got a $1000 battery rebuild kit. And rebuilding the battery was fairly easy; mainly just removing the old cells and installing new ones in the housing that holds the cells. 3 hour job.


There's a guy at my work that basically flips two Priuses (Preii?) a month and make about $2,000 a pop doing just that. Basically $50,000 a year flipping cars.

He used to concentrate on Durangos and Dakotas as they have some sensor that's about $100 but when it fails, some dealers and repair shops will try to convince the owner that it's an issue with the transmission and/or the 4WD and try to buy the vehicle for $500, install the sensor and sell the vehicle for $4,000 or $5,000.

I might just consider doing the Prius thing if I found the right deal for my own use.
 
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I always thought that a plug-in hybrid made more sense than a non-plugin. Its much cheaper to buy electric off the grid than it is to burn gasoline to make it. Apparently there are modifications for the Prius to make it plug-in.
 
For starters, let me say that we didn’t buy the cars because of the finances, we got them to cut our emissions. The point of my post is that I felt like we finally got to a place where the technology, price and utility are converging in a place that works for us. The tax credit buys you the electric part of a really nice car in every respect, it’s not the cheapest option, just a reasonable one that helps reduce emissions for everyone, so you’re welcome.


And, it’s a Honda, generally pretty reliable. Doing battery cars around 20 years I think.
 
For starters, let me say that we didn’t buy the cars because of the finances, we got them to cut our emissions. The point of my post is that I felt like we finally got to a place where the technology, price and utility are converging in a place that works for us. The tax credit buys you the electric part of a really nice car in every respect, it’s not the cheapest option, just a reasonable one that helps reduce emissions for everyone, so you’re welcome.


And, it’s a Honda, generally pretty reliable. Doing battery cars around 20 years I think.

Emissions at your tailpipe is reduced but what about the electricity itself. Does your electricity provider burn coal?
 
Actually, in central NJ, about 45% of the power is nuclear, the rest made up of natural gas, and about 2-3% coal and 2-3% "renewable". Annoyingly, PSE&G has an ESP for a new unit at Salem/Hope Creek, but they're not going to put in for a license or even think of building, with the current anti-nuke hysteria of the last 10 or so years in the US. Maybe if the AP1000s at Vogtle get finished (the 3 or 4 identical ones in China are running already - the design works).

Coal's rapidly going away in the US, the only ones who want it are the railroads (since it's about all the can competitively move anymore), the utilities have moved on, and the mines employ a rounding error's worth of people...
 
Amusingly I live within sight of Salem/ Hope Creek and my power does not come from there. It used to be supplied from a few ancient coal fired plants, but one of them has been completely demolished now. Frankly I don't actually know what my grid feed is from anymore. I've got solar on the roof and don't really get an electric bill anymore so I guess it doesn't matter a ton.


I really wish they'd build a new unit down there. It would require a service road in the township I live in, which means we'd actually have a commercial taxable source. I doubt it will happen though. The cost of building one is not really justified given the current low price of natural gas.
 
Even when I commuted to a further store everyday, a plug in hybrid would keep me from using any gas except on long trips. Same with my wife. Her car commute has always been short, whether it was to and from the train station or to and from the hospital she works at now.

I’m going to miss the Volt. I’m no GM fan but I really felt that car knocked it out of the park.

I don’t know where in NJ OP is but I’m over in the north east suburbs of Philadelphia. Taxes aren’t as high as across the river but the property values are high. I’m afraid I don’t see a garage in our future for charging. We can afford to buy my mom out of her house with no garage (considering it) but not my in laws who have a two car garage (unless they wanted to lose out on half their equity and they don’t).
 
Political talk and discussions of Indoctrination deleted - keep it light, folks!
 
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