Home · 2018 Honda Clarity Electric · Complaints

What 24 owners told NHTSA about the 2018 Honda Clarity Electric

These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.

All (24)Crash / fire / injury (2)Brakes (5)Electrical system (5)Visibility & wipers (5)Engine (4)Driver assistance (3)Fuel system (3)Transmission & drivetrain (3)Lane Departure (2)Airbags (1)Body & structure (1)

3 of 24 complaints match · Driver assistance · clear filters

Sep 28, 2025Electrical systemBrakesDriver assistance

Since last Wed. (9/24/2025), the car started to show the warnings of "Adaptive Cruise Control Problem", "Brake Hold System Problem", "Brake System Problem", "Electric Parking Brake Problem", and "Road Departure Mitigation System Problem" from time to time. I bought this VHonda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid 2018 in June 2023 as the HoneTrue Certified. Then probably the same time, the car lose the EV mode by itself, and only drives in the gas mode. I found this issue and late manually changed it to EV mode. WHile then it again dropped the EV mode during the driving today (9/28/2025). When I tried to press the EV button, it shows "Drive Mode Change Unavailable"! After stopped at home, I re-started the car, I can change it to EV mode.

NHTSA ODI 11690222

Nov 16, 2023BrakesDriver assistance

I was driving straight, no objects in my way, 100 yards behind the car in front of me, and the car automatically breaked with the brake sign flashing on the dash and dinging, bringing me to almost a full stop without my ability to control the car. I had been going ~50mph. It was jarring. I lurched forward, bags and anything on seats flew off. The car behind me almost hit me. There was no reason for the stop. The car has NEVER done this before. I drive 500 miles per week commuting.

NHTSA ODI 11555399

Nov 27, 2022Driver assistanceLane Departure

The car suddenly suspends LCAS, ACC (all related with camera located on the windshield) emergency breaking system on the road without any warning causing dangerous situation for me. I had couple of times a probability of severe accidents.

NHTSA ODI 11495074

Working with the data? Download all 24 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 19, 2026

How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the full 2018 Honda Clarity Electric verdict →