2018 Honda Clarity goes from hydrogen to electric

In a bid to do their bit to save the environment, car manufacturers have turned to many alternate propulsion choices for their cars. Honda chose to go with hydrogen fuel cells to power their Clarity Fuel Cell model a few years ago. And now, they’ve come up with two additions to the range, namely the Clarity Plug-in Hybrid and the Clarity Electric, to utilise other more popular green propulsion methods.

The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid is powered by a 17 kWH battery pack that is backed up by a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol engine. The output stands at 181 hp and 314 Nm. The hybrid powertrain will endow it with a healthy 528 km total range and an electric-only range of 67 km. Adding up to the numbers that it already has, is an impressive equivalent fuel efficiency figure of 2.7 litres/100 km. The hybrid will be offered in two trims, Standard and Touring.

The all-electric Clarity comes with no official range figure attached to it, but some sources predict it to have a miserly 128 km range after taking into account its 25.5 kWH battery capacity. SAE Combo DC Fast Charging is available, which will charge the batteries up to 80% within 30 minutes. The final output of the electric motors is 161 hp which comes along with a 300 Nm torque output. The equivalent fuel efficiency soars as high as 2.4 litres/100 km.

Both the new additions to the Clarity range will grace U.S. markets by the end of 2017. There are no plans to bring the cars here to battle the Prius any time soon.