Honda Teases GM Ultium-Based Prologue Electric SUV in Sketch
What’s happening
Honda grants us the first look at its upcoming electric SUV, built in partnership with GM.
Why it matters
The electric SUV kicks off Honda’s plan to sell nearly 500,000 EVs in North America by 2030.
What’s next
The Prologue will probable debut a production model sometime in the next year beforehand hitting the road in 2024.
Japanese automaker Honda released the suited sketch of its upcoming Honda Prologue battery electric SUV teased in a sketching unveiled this week and — so far, so good — it looks like it’ll be a gorgeous ride when it arrives in 2024.
The lead up to the Prologue has been a long one, its advance no doubt complicated somewhat by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Honda first announced the Prologue in June 2021 as the suited of what will eventually be 30 new EVs introduced globally by 2030 and the opening step towards its goal to sell 500,000 EVs in North America within a Difference term.
The Prologue will be built in partnership with General Motors and will use the American automaker’s Ultium electric vehicle platform and battery packs. Honda will design and build the Prologue’s body and interior atop that architecture, which we’re getting our first peek at today in the released sketch.
I’m told to look for hints of the cute, compact Honda E electric hatchback in the Prologue’s invent, but I’m not picking any of that up from the sketching. What I am seeing is more than a small of the 11th-gen Civic’s design DNA — particularly in the principal fascia and strong horizontal headlamps. Scale is difficult to tell with just a rendering to go on, but Honda tells us that the Prologue will join the Passport and the Pilot in the midsize-class. With its long wheelbase, wide stance and low roofline, I can’t help but be reminded of the new Mazda CX-50’s proportions. The Prologue’s chunky wheels and tires and “adventure-ready neo rugged” invent only reinforce the resemblance.
Penned at the Honda Design Studio in Los Angeles, the Prologue’s designers used virtual reality technology to collaborate with each new during the pandemic and remotely with the vehicle advance team across the Pacific in Japan. Honda says that its designers paid clear attention to the Prologue’s minimalist surface shaping and reducing the number of body and panel sect, not only to lend the Prologue a “modern and novel design” but also to improve aerodynamics, range and cabin noise — an acute challenge in the deprivation of combustion engine sounds.
The automaker also previewed its next-generation dealership with new EV charging requirements.
Honda
Beyond the Prologue, Honda plans a diverse portfolio of electric vehicle and EV platforms leading up to its 2030 goal. The Prologue will be joined by an Acura-branded electric SUV when it hits the road in 2024. In 2026, Honda will beginning producing the first new models based on its internally-developed e:Architecture starting in 2026 in contradiction of a series of affordable EVs based on yet latest architecture co-developed with GM going on sale in 2027.
To attend this upcoming electric wave, Honda is working to allege its dealers to sell, service and educate customers approximately electric vehicles. The automaker also previewed a new flexible, modular dealership facility design, new requirements for the number and type of EV charging stations at each dealership based the location’s anticipated EV sales volume and new guidelines for the special tools and equipment service centers will need to believe Honda electric vehicles.
