Honda News: Electrified Honda Prologue SUV Revealed

[David]

Honda has given us the first official look at the exterior and interior styling of the All-New Honda Prologue electric SUV that launches in North America in 2024. The Prologue is what Honda is calling a "Neo-Rugged" exterior and interior styling with ample interior space that enables one for adventure inside and outside the city limits.

 As we get into looking at this Honda, keep in mind that Honda signed a joint agreement with GM to use their Ultium Platform for their Honda EV portfolio. As such, it will be interesting to compare and contrast this SUV with SUVs from GM.

On top of this, the month of October Honda also has launched a CR-V Hybrid that Honda even says will be a Gateway vehicle to the Prologue. The Honda CR-V Hybrid will be focused in sales on short term leases in ZEV states to allow Honda to Transition hybrid customers to EVs.

The Honda Prologue is the First for Honda's EV portfolio and will be on sale in 2024 North America wide. Prologue is to complement the Honda's light truck lineup, positioned alongside the Passport and above the CR-V, offering generous passenger and cargo space over the ICE autos.

Masaki Sumimoto, design lead for the Color, Materials and Finish had the following to say: "Our goal was to create a clean harmony based on a rugged SUV image by coordinating the colors and materials to express neo-rugged design styling that’s familiar to our customers and uniquely Honda,"

To this end, Prologue upon release for sales will be available in an exclusive North Shore Pearl exterior color, inspired by the natural beauty of the Lake Tahoe area.

The Prologue also pulled from the Honda e EV auto that was sold outside North America with the flowing front fascia, 21" standard wheels to give the SUV a capable and planted look.

The natural beauty of fresh fallen snow on the surrounding mountain tops of the Lake Tahoe area was inspiration for the exclusive use of Charcoal and light grey interior colors.

Prologue will keep the great outdoors open feeling by having a panoramic roof and yet showcase a tech-rich cabin with a standard fully digital 11" driver display and a 11.3" audio/connectivity display.

Prologue details are as follows:

• Wheelbase - 121.8" (8 inches longer and 5 inches wider than a 2023 Honda CR-V)
• Overall length - 192"
• Width - 78.3"
• Height - 64.7"
• Wheel Diameter - 21"
• AWD available at launch

This is the start of what Honda has stated is the "YEAR of the HONDA SUV"

All-new models of the HR-V, CR-V and Pilot, play key roles in preparing for volume Honda EV sales that begin in 2024 with the Prologue per Honda's press release.

Gary Robinson, vice president, automobile planning and strategy of America Honda stated the following: "We are not going to wait until 2024 to attract EV buyers, because we see a natural progression for a CR-V customer to Prologue with its slightly larger size, larger interior and capable handling," "We will support that transition now by putting smart strategies in place with the CR-V hybrid, that will enable our customers to transition to an EV."

Honda made the following statement on their current and future sales plan.

Honda’s research shows that hybrid-electric customers are among the first to move into full-electric products. Honda plans to increase the model mix of the 2023 CR-V to 50% hybrid sales and will offer customers of the CR-V hybrid a shorter term, two-year lease in ZEV states when that model comes to market in fall 2022. This will enable a customer in targeted markets to easily transition into a Prologue when the new EV launches in 2024. In this way, the company’s increasing hybrid sales volume will help grow a future EV customer base. 

More details on the Prologue will be released in the coming months with customers encouraged to sign up for updates at:

2024 Honda Prologue – Fully Electric SUV | Honda

Honda Electrification Rollout
Toward its global goal to achieve carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities by 2050, Honda will introduce 30 new EVs globally by 2030, with a global sales volume of 2 million units. In North America, Honda has laid out an aggressive timeline of EV introductions based on three initial phases leading to 2030 and ultimately to 100% zero-emission automobile sales by 2040:

2024: Begin sales of the Honda Prologue, co-developed with GM

2026: Begin sales of Honda models based on Honda e:Architecture to be produced by Honda in North America. 

2027: Begin sales of a new series of affordable EVs co-developed with GM, also produced by Honda in North America.

Honda also recently announced an agreement to establish a joint venture to produce lithium-ion batteries in the U.S. to power Honda and Acura EV models for the North American market.

View full article

[ccap41]

Dear GM,

This is what the Blazer should look like. Please stop with the gimmicky EV styling. 

Sincerely,

Everybody

[smk4565]

This is sort of yawn styling, but if priced on par with a Blazer, it will outsell the Blazer.

[David]

13 hours ago, smk4565 said:

This is sort of yawn styling, but if priced on par with a Blazer, it will outsell the Blazer.

It will clearly outsell the Mercedes Blah designs. This is a winner for Honda.

[ccap41]

13 hours ago, smk4565 said:

This is sort of yawn styling, but if priced on par with a Blazer, it will outsell the Blazer.

Do vehicles get more "blah" than Merc's EVs? 

[surreal1272]

16 hours ago, smk4565 said:

This is sort of yawn styling, but if priced on par with a Blazer, it will outsell the Blazer.

It is sized between the Equinox and Blazer so it's not really a direct competitor but the vanilla styling will probably appeal to the Honda bore me crowd. It is also probably starting at lower price than the Blazer so higher sales would not be surpassing but it sure as hell won't be due to the Blazer being inferior in any way, as your post implies.

[surreal1272]

2 hours ago, surreal1272 said:

would not be surpassing

Would not be “surprising”. Thanks a lot autocorrect lol. 

[Robert Hall]

Clean, pleasant enough.  Side profile / greenhouse reminds me of the KL Cherokee... the rear w/ the taillights and how Honda is spelled out gives it a Dodge feel...with a different grille this could be a 2nd gen Journey appearance.