Honda Clarity plug in: World's ugliest car

[MetroMPG]

I spotted a Clarity in the wild yesterday on the 416 just south of Ottawa.

Can confirm: still ugly!

[gone-ot]

"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder....better get me another beer."

[Vman455]

I looked a Clarity over at the Indianapolis Auto Show a few weeks ago. It's the only production car (that I know of) to use air curtains over the rear wheels in addition to the front. The air curtain outlets are much shorter and wider than what BMW uses:


(sorry, I don't know if I can rotate pictures in an Ecomodder album)

The inlets for the front air curtains are at the outside edge of the fascia, just below a radiator inlet on the driver/blocked duct on the passenger side:



Lower grill opening:



The airdam setup was interesting, and unlike any other cars at the show. In front, there's a small airdam about a foot in front of the lowered fairing under the engine, then it's flat back to the rear suspension:





The airdams for the rear wheels are smaller than any others I saw, and placed much further forward:



In photographs of the Clarity, I had thought that the trunk looked like it has a window in it, which I found confusing. Turns out, inside there is a window below the package shelf:



Why didn't they just make it a hatchback?

In other confusing design choices, Honda has decided, since the introduction of the 2016 Civic, to make its folding rear seats electric-only in sedans and coupes (the Civic hatch still has manual-folding seats). So now, if your battery dies you can't fold the seats, and on display cars at an auto show, interested parties can't fold the seats to see how much room there is. That seems like an answer to a question nobody asked.

[Xist]

I have not ever wanted power seats. I imagine people would be happy to pay for electric folding seats, but I do not understand why.

[MetroMPG]

Same people who want power hatchbacks.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Vman455

It's the only production car (that I know of) to use air curtains over the rear wheels in addition to the front.

Why didn't they just put skirts on it? They might gain some respect from the 1st gen Insight crowd. The styling already visually hints at skirts. Chickens!

I can tell you those front & rear curtains would be pretty useless around here n the winter months when the inlets & outlets are plugged with frozen slush!

[redpoint5]

Why do new powertrains have to be accompanied by ugly exterior design?

The Nissan Leaf was the first mass produced EV, and it was hideous.
BMW's first mass produced EV, the i3, is not a good looking vehicle.
This Clarity is clearly awful to look at.
Hey, the Honda Insight was a decent looking car.

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Why do new powertrains have to be accompanied by ugly exterior design?

Low-drag design certainly doesn't have to be ugly. The BMW i8 (Cd .26) they had there was swarmed with people; the i3 and Clarity, not so much.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Why do new powertrains have to be accompanied by ugly exterior design?

You know, some weird exterior design enables the vehicles fitted with those powertrains to be more easily recognisable on the wild, and basically to make those who buy them just to show-off their "eco" credentials feel more entitled to perform their virtue-signalling.

BMW's first mass produced EV, the i3, is not a good looking vehicle.

I don't dislike the looks of the i3 so badly, even though it did surprise me that BMW didn't try to make it more appealing to its average buyers.

[freebeard]

The only difference I see in the i3 and i8 is the proportions. Tall/narrow vs low/flat.

They have similar corporate identity and styling cues.