Honda says that all of its car sales will be electric in North America in 2040, which is a tweak on what other carmakers have been saying, like GM, which merely has an “aspiration to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new light-duty vehicles by 2035.” Enter the Honda Prologue, which is a car.
The logo for it looks like this:
It was announced Monday, an all-electric SUV that will be years late to the North American market and well after cars like the Tesla Model Y, the Chevy Bolt EUV, and the Volkswagen ID.4. This is big, though, because it signals that Honda going to try in the EV space here, after only bothering to do it elsewhere.
Yes, there is the Honda Clarity, a plug-in hybrid, and there is the Honda Clarity, a fuel-cell electric vehicle, and there are other electrified efforts like the Accord Hybrid, the CR-V Hybrid, and the Insight. But the Prologue is something different, an all-electric car for North America that sounds like a pretty big swing.
In addition to the Honda Prologue, the company will introduce an all-electric Acura SUV in the 2024 calendar year. Both will utilize the highly flexible global EV platform powered by Ultium batteries based on the company’s strategic partnership with General Motors. Honda also plans to launch a new series of EV models in the second half of the decade based on a new e:Architecture, with development led by Honda.
“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 vice president of American Honda. “The Prologue will provide our customers with a battery-electric SUV with the excellent functionality and packaging they’ve come to expect from Honda.”
Honda doesn’t sell the Fit here anymore even though the fourth-generation Fit is fantastic and Honda also doesn’t sell the Honda E here even though the Honda E also is fantastic, so Honda can get fucked pretending like it couldn’t do this until now (and that it can’t before the 2024 model year). That said, it’s not on Honda alone that the incentives to sell EVs in the U.S. are bad, as opposed to China and Europe.
In any case, it’s going to be very exciting when the 2024 Honda Prologue is a $40,000 mediocre electric that only people with money can afford, like all the rest of EVs in the States.