2024 Honda Prologue EV gets to something greater

The Prologue is Honda’s first mass-market EV. And happily it’s making much more sense on arrival than it was a couple of months in the past. 

What occurred final month was an enormous contextual piece. The corporate rolled out two head-turning Honda EV concepts offering a glimpse of its 0 Collection (Zero Collection) electrical autos set to launch in 2026—they usually seem like clean-slate efforts that pay no heed to precedent. Neither of those ideas don retro cues or heritage design; they’re a radical new search for Honda. And the U.S. market is a priority for them. 

However the Prologue actually doesn’t look or really feel that very like a Honda—neither a recent, mass-market Honda just like the Accord or Civic, nor a mannequin that inherits the sci-fi-tinged design and quirky interface particulars of the previous Readability Electrical or the Europe-focused Honda E. 

In that lens, the Prologue makes excellent sense. It isn’t the one which’s going to win over EV followers with a extra digital-savvy design than the Hyundai Ioniq 5, punchier efficiency than the Kia EV6 GT, or a worth beating the VW ID.4. It’s not the EV to win customers over from these different manufacturers. However it’s the one to maintain Honda loyalists from leaving the model for a kind of others—and supply them an on-ramp that will get them used to the thought of an EV earlier than the true headliners arrive. 

It’s coaching wheels for dealerships, too, which can be relieved that the Prologue doesn’t remake the car fully for the EV period. But.

Prologue is and isn’t a Honda

And again to the design level: Sure, the Prologue concurrently IS a Honda design and ISN’T a real Honda. It’s a “high hat,” as these within the trade confer with it, fitted to a set of engineering “exhausting factors” specified by GM, and cookie-cut right into a car, over GM’s Ultium propulsion platform and a elementary car structure that isn’t far faraway from that of the Chevy Blazer EV.

Over a part of a day with the Prologue, on a variety of Northern California freeways, sweeping Wine Nation highways, and tightly curved nation backroads, I discovered that the Prologue doesn’t make any main missteps—all whereas driving, using, and functioning in ways in which received’t appear alien to your mother, your coworker, or the neighbor down the road who’s simply beginning to consider EVs.

For these not viewing each new Cybertruck overview and questioning when Juniper will arrive, this can be the correct quantity of radically totally different. The Prologue has typical door handles, and the doorways shut with a reassuring thunk. It has a begin/cease button and a steering-column shift lever. There are bodily local weather management buttons and dials, and vents which you could seize and goal together with your fingers. I paired my iPhone and began utilizing wi-fi CarPlay in lower than a minute.

Prologue energy, vary, and effectivity

Single-motor variations of the Prologue have a permanent-magnet motor up entrance delivering 232 hp and 238 lb-ft of torque. Twin-motor Prologues make the identical 288 hp and 333 lb-ft of torque that some variations of its Chevy Blazer make with an induction motor on the rear, however Honda says its model within the Prologue has a everlasting magnet motor on the rear as a substitute—a transfer that may ramp up the effectiveness of the regenerative braking (I noticed almost 170 kw at a number of factors).

All Prologues have an 85-kwh (gross) battery pack, with EPA vary scores of 296 miles for single-motor front-wheel-drive variations and 281 miles for a lot of the dual-motor all-wheel-drive variations. High Elite AWD variations just like the one I drove include the bottom vary ranking of 273 miles—due largely to their bigger 21-inch wheels. 

Over about three hours of driving total, protecting about 120 miles with a variety of terrain ups and downs and emphasizing the efficiency facet of the Prologue for a while, we averaged 2.9 miles per kwh—suggesting a full vary of properly over 200 miles even in these conditions. Climate was sunny within the 60s. 

The Prologue, as is the case for therefore many EVs, is not any light-weight. The official curb weight of the highest Elite AWD model I drove is 5,273 kilos. With a protracted steering ratio and a agency however well-damped really feel, the Prologue feels in its ingredient on the freeway, the place lane adjustments are probably the most abrupt maneuver. However, out on slim nation backroads with a uneven floor, the Prologue felt fully out of its ingredient, with the entrance and rear multi-link suspension association balking to maintain all the load coordinated, even with clean steering inputs. A extra front-heavy weight distribution of 54/46 entrance/rear for the AWD, the least front-heavy within the lineup, most likely doesn’t assist quell the careening impressions. Nor does the entrance seats’ close to full lack of facet bolstering to maintain occupants in place. 

A great deal of cabin area. Besides that headroom…

As I identified in my first look at the 2024 Honda Prologue, legroom is plentiful entrance and rear, door cuts are big, and the seat top itself is excellent for straightforward entry and exit. The one factor lacking from this sense of abundance is headroom in again, within the outboard positions, the place the encompass for the huge sunroof will get in the best way. It’s omitted in base EX variations, so strive them you probably have six-footers to load in again. 

Cargo area can be huge, at 25.2 cubic toes with the second row up, with an additional 5.0-cubic-foot properly down low. Elevate heights are low, and the rear seatbacks flip ahead and again with one hand. 

Take a step again from the skin, and there’s merely not an ungainly angle across the car. The profile itself is properly proportioned from the facet, and the Prologue has a particular look from the rear plus a pleasing, virtually sedan-like stance from the entrance, with security sensors stowed away in a flush panel the place the grille would possibly in any other case be.

Just like the Blazer EV, the Prologue has three regenerative braking settings: off (some deceleration), regular (average regen), and excessive (aggressive regen). A paddle behind the steering wheel means that you can toggle via them, and an auto-hold button retains “creep” at bay if you elevate off the brake pedal. Solely the highest Elite model has a Sport mode button that tweaks accelerator inputs, ramps up the regen barely, impacts steering enhance considerably, and performs an audio soundtrack (no thanks). 

What the Prologue does have are some quirks. Amongst them, the headlights and the regenerative braking modes can solely be managed by way of an icon within the high tray of the infotainment display screen.

The Prologue’s infotainment system itself may gain advantage from a flatter construction, and discovering varied settings tended to contain clicking on a home-screen icon and sifting via secondary menu choices. However based mostly on preliminary impressions, the system responded shortly—with not one of the Blazer EV’s momentary glitches Inexperienced Automobile Stories has famous or its extra critical woes seen by another house owners and retailers. And sure, there’s each Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 

Prologue goes Google on route-planning, preconditioning 

Like GM’s, it begins with Google Constructed-In and is technically constructed on the Android Automotive working system. It partitions off Google Maps, Google Assistant, and the Google Play Retailer as native apps on the car, and permits route planning that rests on Google’s charger database and faucets into the car’s state of cost as you go.

Not like the Chevy Blazer EV, which has a guide preconditioning button, the Prologue’s preconditioning is simply activated by a charging vacation spot, Honda confirmed to Inexperienced Automobile Stories. Nevertheless, Honda emphasised that it went its personal method, software-wise, from GM at a specific level within the system’s growth, in a method that isn’t in any respect affected by the woes affecting the interface within the Blazer EV. 

The Prologue presents up some charging specs that aren’t particularly spectacular for road-trip use, and Honda basically discouraged us from making an attempt it—partly, as three out of 4 connectors had been presently down on the nearest Electrify America station on the time of the occasion. DC fast-charging can hit a peak 150 kw and permits a 20-80% cost in as little as 35 minutes. Pondering via how that’s 60% of accessible vary, it’s probably a pair hours at 70 mph, then the charging candy spot for a half hour, in something lower than superb circumstances. On the brighter facet, Prologue’s 11.5 kw onboard charger simply permits the potential for a full residence cost in a single day with the correct {hardware}.  

Prologue $7,500 tax-credit eligibility elements in

The Prologue begins at $48,795 in single-motor front-wheel-drive type, together with the $1,395 vacation spot cost, and embody just about all of the tech options, in addition to wi-fi functionality, heated entrance seats, a 10-way energy driver seat, and dual-zone automated local weather management. Twin-motor all-wheel-drive variations begin at $51,795, which looks like it is likely to be the very best deal of the lineup. Mid-level Touring fashions begin at $53,095 and $56,095, respectively, for front- or all-wheel drive and add a panoramic sunroof, Bose premium audio, reminiscence seat settings, and trim upgrades. 

Within the top-trim Elite AWD model I drove, costing $59,295 however including 21-inch wheels plus perforated leather-based upholstery, accent stitching, a heated steering wheel, and cooled entrance seats, it merely appeared that the Prologue is nudging too near the Kia EV9, the Cadillac Lyriq, sportier variations of the Chevy Blazer EV, or the Acura ZDX, amongst others. 

The Prologue is predicted to be eligible for the total $7,500 EV tax credit score, however most if not all of these fashions might be too. 

Will GM even be capable of construct sufficient of them?

There’s one other massive query right here, too. Honda is relying on 40,000 of those Prologues per 12 months from GM, beginning this primary 12 months. It is satisfied it might probably promote them. However contemplating GM’s struggle to ramp up EVs, via a interval with no lack of demand, that could be an inexpensive concern for Honda.

As I summed after first seeing the Prologue in September, this EV is precisely what it must be—an effort that registers as “regular,” not a distinct segment effort just like the Toyota bZ4X. Now after spending extra time within the Prologue, and driving it, I’m satisfied that Honda made the best alternative for capturing EV-curious Accord, CR-V, or Passport drivers—and possibly a couple of Camry and Highlander drivers alongside the best way.