2018 Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid Review | iDSC033

2018 Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid Review – Rock Honda No range anxiety here!  The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid is the vehicle for you if you’re looking for all the benefits of an electric vehicle with none of the stress about making it to your destination.  Get the details with iDriveSoCal’s newest contributor, Bernadette Sanicola! ***Transcript*** Recording date – February 13, 2018 Bernadette Sanicola: Top three things, I would say that it's the space in the car. The interior space can literally fit, if you were moving, this person could help you because it's split folding seats. And just easy accessibility to it. Second thing would have to be the range. The car regenerated itself impressively, and I came back and returned the car with actually some miles on it, some range. And the third thing I would say about it would be the technology. I think it's pretty futuristic. It connected Apple CarPlay right away. It had all the features, all technology features that you want as far as almost autonomous driving. Tom Smith: Welcome iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of these fine United States of America - Southern California. I'm Tom Smith and in this episode, we are introducing a new contributor, a new team member of iDriveSoCal and that is our good friend Bernadette Sanicola. Say hello, Bernadette. Bernadette: Hello. Thanks for having me, Tom. Tom: Thanks for being with us. Bernadette and I have known each other for probably a decade, quite honestly, and she is a huge car gal. Southern California native, pit reporter for American Le Mans and NASCAR, and television and radio, and we're lucky to have her and thank you for joining us. Today we're going to be talking about the 2018 Honda Clarity that you test drive. Bernadette: Yeah, plug in Hybrid. Tom: From our good friends over at Rock Honda. Bernadette: Great dealership. Tom: So tell us about the drive. Bernadette: Well, the car was interesting. It was good. Most electric cars I've driven, I jump in and take off from wherever I am and the range, and the electric range goes down immediately and I end up just running on gas the whole time. But this car was impressive. It actually has a huge range which is 340 miles. And I didn't lose all electric range even when I returned the car. I still had the power to… Tom: So did the gas motor kick on at all? Bernadette: It did, no, absolutely, it did. Yeah, I wanted it to take on for the drive reasons and for the acceleration, but the car was pretty seamless. Like if you don't… I know, Tom, you said you don't know much in this segment. And honestly if somebody just wants to get in and go in an electric car, this is the car for them. Tom: And it's a plug in hybrid, so that means really you don't…range anxiety is a nonfactor because you can always have gas in the engine and then that will always regenerate your batteries, correct? Bernadette: Exactly. It's a seven gallon gas tank so between you know 47 miles, we have an all-electric drive plus the gas, you get about 340 total range. And with that, you can recharge the battery as you go so if your battery starts to get low, kick it over into a different mode, driving mode and it starts to regenerate and charge your battery up. This car was pretty seamless; it was pretty sophisticated. Tom: So where did you take it? What kind of driving did you do? Bernadette: Well, being on the 210 freeway, I went down to visit the fam and my dad at Outdoor Elegance. Tom: Ding, ding, ding. Hello, Doug and Sharon Sanicola at Outdoor Elegance. Bernadette's parents own Outdoor Elegance Patio Design Center right out there on Laverne off Foothill Boulevard,