A new pure electric vehicle from Honda called the Prologue will drive its plan for 100% all-electric sales by 2040 for the company in the US, but the company says it still sees a place in the market for hybrids.
The new mass-volume Prologue will come to market in the US in 2024 and will be joined by an all-electric Acura later that year.
Honda has not given away much in the way of specifications about the Prologue just yet, other than that it will offer “versatility, and driving range on par with our current lineup of SUVs.”
What we do know is that both the Prologue and Acura will make use of a “highly flexible global EV platform” developed as part of the Japanese car-maker’s partnership with American auto giant General Motors, including the latter’s Ultium batteries which will go into production in Lordstown, Ohio.
“Our first volume Honda BEV will begin our transition to electrification and the name Honda Prologue signals the role it will play in leading to our zero-emission future,” said Dave Gardner, executive VP of American Honda in a statement.
“The Prologue will provide our customers with a battery-electric SUV with the excellent functionality and packaging they’ve come to expect from Honda.”
The scant details – which Honda says it will fill out over coming months – come after the company’s announcement in April that it will go all-electric in the US by 2040. In order to achieve that goal, the company says 40% of its auto sales in the US will be all-electric by 2030, and 80% by 2035.
This goal follows a similar, and more ambitious, plan for its operations in the UK to phase out all petrol and diesel models by 2022.
Honda has traditionally been a forward thinker in the US with regards to transitioning to electric mobility, although in recent years it has perhaps dragged its feet.
It introduced the first hybrid on the US market – the Insight – in 1999, and the first hydrogen-powered vehicle – the Clarity – in 2017. However, sales of electrified vehicles only account for a small per cent of its market.
American Honda posted record sales in May for any month with its Honda CR-V proving the favourite at 42,000 sales and its HR-V scaling to a new record at 15,000 units sold according to the company’s latest sales report.
But out of nearly 180,000 vehicles sold in May, including passenger vehicles and trucks, only 12,000 were electrified (this includes hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric and fuel cell hydrogen vehicles) – or less than 7 per cent.
While Honda’s “Honda e” has been met warmly in overseas markets such as the UK and bagged World Car and German car of the year awards, the car-maker chose not to introduce it to the American market.
Instead, it says that it believes continuing to introduce hybrid-electric drive-trains to its existing popular US models will help consumers transition to battery-electric vehicles in the future.
“We know customers who have a good experience with a hybrid vehicle are more likely to buy a battery-electric vehicle in the future,” said Gardner.
“Our strategy is focused on introducing a higher percentage of hybrids in core models in the near term, making a committed effort to achieve higher volume leading to the introduction of our Honda Prologue.”
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.