HONDA · vehicle model
HONDA CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID
251 NHTSA complaints and 2 safety recalls across model years 2017–2021.
- Complaints
- 251
- Recalls
- 2
- Model years
- 5
The HONDACLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID appears in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database with 251 consumer safety complaints and 2 recall campaigns across 5 model years (2017–2021). That averages roughly 50 complaints per model year. Report counts can differ between model years for many reasons; this dataset does not establish the cause of a difference.
Complaint volume on a nameplate alone is not a reliability verdict: a long-running bestseller can accumulate more filings than a low-volume niche model because more vehicles are on the road. The table below shows report counts and published NHTSA crash-test ratings side by side for each model year. The filing-year histogram shows the timing of submitted reports, not a causal trend.
NHTSA has 79 investigation files tied to this model, with 9 currently open. Investigation records, complaint reports, and recall campaigns each provide different context. Use the official NHTSA VIN lookup and the underlying notices to research a specific vehicle; PlainCars does not infer a vehicle-risk or pricing conclusion from these records.
Complaints by Year
Complaint Filing Trend
NHTSA complaint volume by year filed (not model year).
Filings moved from 131 in 2017-2021 to 120 in 2022-2026, a fall of 8.4%. That is the 58th percentile of change across the 772 nameplates with enough filings in both windows to compare, where 0 is the steepest fall and 100 the steepest rise.
Filing volume, not a reliability verdict: counts also move with how many vehicles are on the road, how old they are, and whether a recall drew attention. Computed from this portal's NHTSA filing-year records over the same two windows the trend rankings use.
Year filed (bar labels show the complaint count).
Compare HONDACLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID to Similar Vehicles
NHTSA Investigations 9 Open
Inadvertent Deployment of Air Bags
Inaccurate Rear Passenger Seat Belt Warning Status
Loss of Motive Power
Inadvertent Deployment of Side Air Bags
Loss of braking force
Engine failure
No Restart After Auto Start/Stop Engages
Rear-View Camera Failure
Inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking
Engine failure
Frequently Asked Questions
How reliable is the HONDA CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID?▼
What years of HONDA CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID are available?▼
Does the HONDA CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID have safety ratings?▼
What are the most common HONDA CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID complaints?▼
How do I check if my HONDA CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID has been recalled?▼
Data sources
Data vintage: August 2026. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. HONDA CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID totals are aggregated from the linked NHTSA model-year rows; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.