Honda teases upcoming Prelude, its first electric SUV to be sold in the US

Honda released a teaser image of the upcoming 2024 Prolog electric SUV, the company's first battery-electric vehicle to be sold in the US. The company also touted its hybrid vehicles as a way to address questions that have been slow to roll out an EV strategy compared to its rivals.

The Prologue will be the first of two vehicles that Honda is co-developing with General Motors using the American automaker's Altium battery pack. The second vehicle will carry the Acura nameplate and will be developed jointly with GM, but the company hasn't provided any new details at this time. The Prelude, which will go on sale in 2024, also marks the start of a wave of 30 hybrid, battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles, which Honda says will be released by 2030.

These EVs will be built on various EV architectures being built by Honda, some in collaboration with General Motors. The Honda Prolog and Acura EVs will be built on GM's Altium platform, which is also powering the Detroit-based automaker's Hummer EV pickup truck and the Cadillac Lyric SUV.

Honda's other EVs will be built on the Honda E architecture, which the company plans to introduce in 2026. In 2027, Honda plans to roll out a slate of "affordable" EVs, including a compact SUV. Those vehicles will be based on a new EV architecture it is co-developing with GM.

Mamadou Diallo, vice president of sales for American Honda Motor, said Honda is targeting to sell 60,000 Prelude SUVs in the US in 2024, 70,000 units in 2025 and 300,000 in 2026. Broadly speaking, the company says it wants 40 percent of its sales to be from battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles by 2030, 80 percent by 2035 and 100 percent by 2040.

As can be seen in the teaser image, the Prolog is taking some subtle design cues from the popular Honda e City car. Honda is also emphasizing a vehicle's longer wheelbase and shorter overhangs, or the length of the vehicle that extends beyond its wheelbase. The Prologue was designed at the Honda Design Studio in Los Angeles in collaboration with a design team in Japan.

"We wanted to make sure the Prologue was a true Honda EV and looked right at home in the showroom right next to our SUV lineup," Diallo said.

Honda's current electric lineup is extremely limited compared to other automakers. The company recently discontinued its Clarity EV, though it will continue to sell hydrogen and plug-in hybrid versions of the vehicle. And the Honda E is only available in Japan and Europe.