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 firm rolled out two head-turning Honda EV ideas offering a glimpse of its 0 Series (Zero Series) electrical autos set to launch in 2026—and so they appear 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 precedence for them.
But 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 Clarity Electric or the Europe-focused Honda E.
In that lens, the Prologue makes good 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 value beating the VW ID.4. It’s not the EV to win customers over from these different manufacturers. But it’s the one to maintain Honda loyalists from leaving the model for a type of others—and supply them an on-ramp that will get them used to the concept 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 automobile fully for the EV period. Yet.
2024 Honda Prologue
Prologue is and isn’t a Honda
And again to the design level: Yes, the Prologue concurrently IS a Honda design and ISN’T a real Honda. It’s a “top hat,” as these within the business seek advice from it, fitted to a set of engineering “hard points” specified by GM, and cookie-cut right into a automobile, over GM’s Ultium propulsion platform and a elementary automobile format 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 Country highways, and tightly curved nation backroads, I discovered that the Prologue doesn’t make any main missteps—all whereas driving, driving, 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.
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2024 Honda Prologue
For these not viewing each new Cybertruck assessment and questioning when Redwood 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 that you may seize and intention along 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. Dual-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 an alternative—a transfer that may ramp up the effectiveness of the regenerative braking (I noticed practically 170 kw at a number of factors).
All Prologues have an 85-kwh (gross) battery pack, with EPA vary rankings of 296 miles for single-motor front-wheel-drive variations and 281 miles for a lot of the dual-motor all-wheel-drive variations. Top Elite AWD variations just like the one I drove include the bottom vary score of 273 miles—due principally to their bigger 21-inch wheels.
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2024 Honda Prologue
Over about three hours of driving general, protecting about 120 miles with a number of terrain ups and downs and emphasizing the efficiency aspect of the Prologue for a while, we averaged 2.9 miles per kwh—suggesting a full vary of effectively over 200 miles even in these conditions. Weather was sunny within the 60s.
The Prologue, as is the case for thus many EVs, is not any light-weight. The official curb weight of the highest Elite AWD model I drove is 5,273 kilos. With an extended steering ratio and a agency however well-damped really feel, the Prologue feels in its factor on the freeway, the place lane adjustments are essentially the most abrupt maneuver. On the opposite hand, out on slim nation backroads with a uneven floor, the Prologue felt fully out of its factor, with the entrance and rear multi-link suspension association balking to maintain all the burden 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 aspect bolstering to maintain occupants in place.
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2024 Honda Prologue
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2024 Honda Prologue
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2024 Honda Prologue
Loads of cabin area. Except that headroom…
As I identified in my first have a look at the 2024 Honda Prologue, legroom is plentiful entrance and rear, door cuts are big, and the seat top itself is good for simple entry and exit. The solely 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 attempt them if in case you have six-footers to load in again.
Cargo area can also be huge, at 25.2 cubic ft with the second row up, with an additional 5.0-cubic-foot effectively down low. Lift heights are low, and the rear seatbacks flip ahead and again with one hand.
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2024 Honda Prologue
Take a step again from the surface, and there’s merely not a clumsy angle across the automobile. The profile itself is properly proportioned from the aspect, and the Prologue has a particular look from the rear plus a pleasing, nearly sedan-like stance from the entrance, with security sensors stowed away in a flush panel the place the grille may in any other case be.
Like the Blazer EV, the Prologue has three regenerative braking settings: off (some deceleration), regular (reasonable regen), and excessive (aggressive regen). A paddle behind the steering wheel permits you to toggle by means of them, and an auto-hold button retains “creep” at bay once you raise off the brake pedal. Only the highest Elite model has a Sport mode button that tweaks accelerator inputs, ramps up the regen barely, impacts steering increase considerably, and performs an audio soundtrack (no thanks).
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2024 Honda Prologue
What the Prologue does have are some quirks. Among them, the headlights and the regenerative braking modes can solely be managed by way of an icon within the prime 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 by means of secondary menu choices. But based mostly on preliminary impressions, the system responded rapidly—with not one of the Blazer EV’s momentary glitches Green Car Reports has famous or its extra critical woes seen by another homeowners and retailers. And sure, there’s each Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
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2024 Honda Prologue
Prologue goes Google on route-planning, preconditioning
Like GM’s, it begins with Google Built-In and is technically constructed on the Android Automotive working system. It partitions off Google Maps, Google Assistant, and the Google Play Store as native apps on the automobile, and permits route planning that rests on Google’s charger database and faucets into the automobile’s state of cost as you go.
Unlike the Chevy Blazer EV, which has a handbook preconditioning button, the Prologue’s preconditioning is just activated by a charging vacation spot, Honda confirmed to Green Car Reports. However, Honda emphasised that it went its personal approach, software-wise, from GM at a selected level within the system’s growth, in a approach that isn’t in any respect affected by the woes affecting the interface within the Blazer EV.
The Prologue affords up some charging specs that aren’t particularly spectacular for road-trip use, and Honda basically discouraged us from attempting 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. Thinking by means of how that’s 60% of obtainable vary, it’s probably a pair hours at 70 mph, then the charging candy spot for a half hour, in something lower than perfect circumstances. On the brighter aspect, Prologue’s 11.5 kw onboard charger simply permits the aptitude for a full dwelling cost in a single day with the right {hardware}.
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2024 Honda Prologue
Prologue $7,500 tax-credit eligibility components in
The Prologue begins at $48,795 in single-motor front-wheel-drive kind, 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. Dual-motor all-wheel-drive variations begin at $51,795, which looks like it is likely to be the most effective 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.
In 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 anticipated to be eligible for the total $7,500 EV tax credit score, however most if not all of these fashions will probably be too.
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2024 Honda Prologue
As I summed after first seeing the Prologue in September, this EV is precisely what it must be—an effort that registers as “normal,” not a distinct segment effort just like the Toyota bZ4X. After spending extra time within the Prologue, and driving it, I’m satisfied that Honda made the suitable selection for capturing EV-curious Accord and Pilot/Passport drivers—and perhaps a couple of Camry and Highlander drivers alongside the best way.
Source: www.greencarreports.com