Enjoy long road trips? You might want to pass on the upcoming Honda Clarity, unless you feel like stopping every 80 miles for a change.
Automotive News reports that the all-electric vehicle, slated to make its debut this spring, will have a range of just 80 miles. That's way low compared to the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt, which has a 238-mile range, and just about every other EV out there, the report points out.
Official pricing for the Clarity EV has not yet been announced, but the vehicle is expected to start around $35,000 before tax credits and incentives. A longer-range battery would have made the car more expensive and heavier. Honda is hoping that the price of the car is attractive enough to make up for its short range.
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"A pillar of the Honda brand is affordability, and if Honda came out with some obscenely priced long-range electric car, what does that do for the brand?" Steve Center, vice president of environmental business development at American Honda Motor, told Automotive News. "Most of our customers would not be able to acquire it."
Instead, the company is targeting those who want a large, affordable EV — something bigger than the similarly priced Bolt — who aren't necessarily riddled with range anxiety. Honda says there's demand for that. The company's Fit EV had nearly the same range, and people didn't complain about that so much as they did about its small size, the automaker told Automotive News.
"These people want a battery car and they know what they do and where they go," Center told the news outlet of projected Clarity customers. "They're very rational and they don't need to lug around or charge up a 300-mile-range battery because that costs them electricity."