Honda reveals GM-assisted Prologue electric SUV

Friday, 7 October 2022

Honda has revealed its first all-electric SUV from its GM partnership.

Honda has shown off the Prologue electric SUV, the first production vehicle to come from its partnership with GM.

The design team went for a “neo-rugged” look to set the Prologue apart, giving it a dark visor-like front end inspired by the Honda e hatchback with slim LED strips above three main bulbs.

A charging port sits on the front-right flank, there are regular wing mirrors unlike the Honda e’s cameras, while the rear features some cool LED rear lights and Honda’s name spelt out across another black bar.

This is the Prologue, the first vehicle to come from the Honda/GM partnership.

It has a wheelbase of 3094mm, making it quite a sizeable SUV with an increase between the axles of more than 400mm compared to the current CR-V sold here (2660mm). It’s also 203mm longer and 127mm wider than the North American CR-V, which is, in turn, larger than our CR-V by roughly 100mm in length and 10mm in width.

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Honda’s interior colour was inspired by snow falling on a mountain, apparently.

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Inside is an 11-inch digital instrument display along with an 11.3-inch infotainment screen rocking Honda’s latest and greatest operating system.

Honda says the charcoal and light grey interior colour was inspired by “the visual of fresh fallen snow on the mountains.” Meanwhile, the North Shore Pearl exterior colour came from “the natural beauty and colours near Lake Tahoe in California.”

'Our goal was to create a clean harmony based on a rugged SUV image by co-ordinating the colours and materials to express neo-rugged design styling that’s familiar to our customers and uniquely Honda,' said Masaki Sumimoto, design lead for the Prologue’s colour, materials and finish.

No powertrain details have been revealed but considering the GM links, Honda could match the new Blazer EV with 400-plus kilometres of range and charging at rates up to 190kW. Chevrolet hasn’t confirmed power outputs of the pedestrian Blazers either.

An ‘AWD’ badge on the back of the Prologue indicates all-wheel drive will be offered in at least one version, meaning two electric motors.

Sales of the Prologue will kick off in North America by 2024. So far it’s unclear if it will be sold on the global stage, but we can hope. Honda New Zealand had previously indicated more local SUV news will be confirmed as we head into 2023.

In any case, Honda will introduce 30 new EVs globally by 2030, with a sales target of 2 million units. The brand wants to phase out combustion entirely in North American by 2040.