Honda's 2024 Prologue Is a Stopgap EV
Honda’s new all-electric Prologue SUV needs to be kept in context. And that comes from two separate recent events. The first is the first press drive which was in Healdsburg, California in late January. The other is a “cars and bikes and coffee” event organized by Honda Motor Company and held almost 500 miles south of there at the company’s North American headquarters in Torrance. That happened this past Saturday morning.
One is about the business reality of Honda the corporation. The other is about what Honda has always done best.
The Prologue is big. It's the heaviest vehicle the brand has ever sold in the United States (and presumably anywhere else) that doesn’t have wings and two jet engines. It is also available with twin electric motors that put out a combined 288-horsepower and 333-pound feet of consistent torque. Put that mass and that much power and torque together, and as a result, this is only the second Honda-branded vehicle to come with six-lug wheels.
The first Honda six-lugger? That’s the Passport SUV Honda sold between 1993 and 2002 which was a badge-engineered version of Isuzu’s Rodeo (when Isuzu was partially owned by GM). The Passport was also the last Honda sold here that wasn’t assembled by Honda itself. The Prologue is also not screwed together by Honda but comes off GM’s Ramos Arizpe, Mexico assembly line alongside the stop-sale'd Chevrolet Blazer EV and upcoming Acura ZDX. There’s lots of Blazer EV in the Prologue.
At 192.0-inches overall over a 121.8-inch wheelbase, the Prologue is more than a foot shorter than Honda’s 2024 Odyssey minivan. But Honda lists the heaviest Odyssey (the Elite) at 4590 pounds while the heaviest Prologue Elite is at 5273. And an all-wheel drive Pilot Elite (almost eight inches longer than the Prologue) tamps down with 4660 pounds. The lightest car in Honda’s current line, the Civic LX sedan, scales at 2877 pounds. It’s no longer news how heavy EVs can be, but this is way heavy for a Honda.
Just for giggles … back in 1973 Car and Driver weighed the first Civic in at 1536 pounds. Three original Civics put together still weigh 665 pounds less than one Prologue Elite.
Honda’s engineers strove to make the Prologue feel distinct from the Blazer EV and akin to other Hondas. During the short morning press drive, it felt as if they succeeded in that mission. The Prologue Elite runs on thumping 275/45R21 Bridgestones, yet it has a relatively light feel to its steering and easygoing ride. There’s no sensation of eagerness – the hallmark of Honda’s best internal combustion powertrains – but the driving experience across soggy Northern California roads was vice-free. There was no real chance to pound into corners or slalom across mountain passes, but few Prologue owners are likely to seek those situations out.
Some of the light feel is likely attributable to how GM has engineered its “Ultium” electric vehicle platform. This isn’t a full-time all-wheel drive system, and instead pairs a 241-horsepower motor upfront with a 90-horsepower unit in back that comes on when necessary. Most of the time, the Prologue is running as a front-driver like, well, most other Hondas. Honda has tuned it to feel like a Honda, but how much it would feel like a Honda without that tweaking is open to speculation. So go speculate.
That in mind, 288 hp pushing and/or pulling 5273 pounds is not going to result in startling acceleration. The immediate, instantaneous hit of 333-pound feet is satisfying, but the rush is short lived. It’s surely adequate for daily use, and of course it’s all virtually silent, but this isn’t a Tesla challenger. Skip the drag racing.
Expect a 0-to-60 mph run of a touch over six-seconds with the quarter-mile going by in about 14.5 seconds. Quick by historic standards, but modest in the context of all-electric zappery.
Inside the driver faces a very Honda-like three-spoke steering wheel and the various controls are all in the current Honda idiom. There’s a cleanliness to how it’s all designed, with one smaller 11.0-linch screen forward of the driver and a slightly larger 11.3-incher one atop the dash center. The Elite’s projected heads-up display is easy to read and appreciated. And, unlike the Blazer EV, both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay will work wirelessly with the Prologue’s system.
Fortunately, Honda has put the heating and ventilation controls on a separate bank of buttons under the center screen. No fumbling through inscrutable menus to get the cabin up to temperature.
The seats are comfortable, but no big shakes. The rear seat seems to have plenty of legroom and, sorry, there is no third row. There’s a big sunroof, but this is the sort of vehicle that looks like it should have a roof box permanently affixed up top.
It's the nature of press launches to limit time with the vehicle and the driving routes are prescribed by the manufacturer. So the big questions when it comes to electrics – driving range and charge times – can’t be assessed. All that can be reported is that Honda expects about 300 miles of range out of the 85-kilowatt hour battery pack. Honda also promises quick charging. When one is in hand for a longer exposure, we’ll find out.
The Prologue is a stutter step before bigger ambitions kick in. It’s a way for Honda to join the battery-fed electric market without massive capital investment in a new plant and by sharing development costs with GM. For GM, it’s a way to insure its all-electric bets. There’s nothing wrong with the Prologue, but it doesn’t represent the passion for engineering that has made Honda so beloved.
And it’s that passion that was on hand at the cars and bikes and coffee event at Honda’s headquarters. More than 1200 cars and bikes showed up and more than 3000 people. Virtually every surviving Honda Element in Southern California was there, tons of things wearing Type-R badges, and bikes ranging from dinky new Monkey minis to the stupendous six-cylinder CBX from 45 years ago. Great stuff.
From its inception, Honda has been about engines. Small internal combustion singles in bikes like the Cub to the powerplant that’s sitting behind Max Verstappen in his Red Bull F1 car. There’s always been something almost joyous about how Honda builds everything from weed whackers to the Acura MDX with engines that have a distinct Honda soul.
Honda has been a leader in hybrid and fuel cell tech and already produced all-electrics on its own like the super adorable Honda e. The company promises to have its own in-house “e: architecture” electric for sale sometime in 2025. And it has established an “EV Hub” in Ohio to build batteries near Jeffersonville to assemble EVs at the company’s Marysville plant. It’s similar to the plans other companies are making.
But Honda is working in the context of a history that stretches back through the V-12 Formula One cars it built in the Sixties, the innovative CVCC and VTEC engine technologies it pioneered in the Seventies and Nineties, and daring projects like the oval piston NR500 race bike it built in 1979. In what is essentially a mandated transition to all-electric vehicles, the temptation will be for Honda to me-too the change and build cars that are indistinguishable except for the logo in the steering wheel center.
What’s clear at the koffee klatch is that is not what people who already love Hondas want.
The Prologue goes on sale any day now with prices starting at $48,795 for a two-wheel-drive EX model with a claimed 296 miles of EPA rated range. The AWD Elite will start at $59,295 with a 273-mile rated range. That makes the Prologue Elite the most expensive vehicle Honda will sell here outside the HondaJet.
The context is that this is a stopgap. It's more exciting to contemplate what's next.
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