The WiFi was out on my flight to California to drive the new 2024 Honda Prologue, and jammed into a middle seat as I was, there wasn’t much room to use my laptop anyway. So I found myself poking through Delta’s in-flight movies, looking for a film in the sweet spot of good enough to keep me entertained for two hours yet not new and splashy enough to feel underwhelming on an eight-inch screen.
I settled on a re-watch of The Nice Guys, writer/director Shane Black’s neo-noir 1970s period piece starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. The crux of the plot deals with a conspiracy tying together the U.S. government, the mob and the Detroit automakers in a way I won’t dive into to avoid spoiling the fun. It’s a great movie, with excellent comedic turns from both major characters, Margaret Qualley’s star-making film debut and (of course) more evidence of Black’s obsession with Christmas in L.A.
I bring this up because at the end of the film, Gosling’s character attempts to play down Detroit’s power by saying, “In five years, we’ll all be driving electric cars from Japan.” I admit, I chortled. After all, I was on my way to drive an electric car from Japan … one that was actually made by Detroit.
See, the new Prologue may wear Superintendent Chalmers’s beloved “H” on its hood, but beneath its attractive skin, it’s all General Motors. In order to quickly bring a competitive electric vehicle to market, Honda teamed up with GM to use the latter’s Ultium platform to create a midsize battery-powered crossover and launch it onto the streets before mainstream rivals took too large a chunk out of the market.
After all, it’s right there in the name: Prologue. As in, the introduction to the story that isn’t really a main part of the story. The tale of electric Hondas will really kick off in 2026, with the debut of the 0 Series — the brand’s ambitious plans for bleeding-edge EVs of its own design. The Prologue is just here to whet American appetites; the brand could have just as easily called it the 2024 Honda Canapé.
The Prologue’s rear hatch marks the first appearance of the new “Honda” badge. Photo by Will Sabel Courtney
Well, maybe not, because this EV certainly eats like a meal. Sized in the same midsize class as the Passport and Pilot crossovers and packing close to 300 miles of range (on paper, at least), it’s seemingly well-suited for familial duties — the sort of electric vehicle that millions of American buyers have been anxiously waiting for.
So how does Honda’s first stab at an electric SUV hold up? Well, after that six-hour flight, I spent a couple hours driving around northern California to find out.
The 2024 Honda Prologue: What We Think
The Prologue offers up exactly what many buyers want in an EV: comfortable, suburban familiarity, just with electric drive instead of gasoline power. Dressed in a handsome skin that could easily pass for an old-fashioned internal-combustion crossover, boasting a sizable cabin and coming packed with standard features like heated seats and integrated Google Maps, it’s a strike right at the heart of the crossover market.
The 2024 Honda Prologue, seen with Honda’s aftermarket accessories
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It admittedly doesn’t drive with quite the same involvement as an Accord or even a Ridgeline, due to a combination of factors: the mechanical pieces, after all, are GM, not Honda, and no previous car wearing the “H” packed an 85-kWh battery pack to slow it down. But it’s smooth, quiet and easy to live with, which matters more to its target audience than how well it handles corners.
It may not be particularly revolutionary, but it doesn’t need to be. If it can avoid the hiccups that have plagued some other Ultium vehicles — and with the help of the $7,500 federal tax credit, it’s priced just about evenly with two-row gas-powered crossovers of the same size, thus eliminating a major obstacle to EV adoption for many families.
Photo by Will Sabel Courtney
The 2024 Prologue is a handsome crossover by any standard
Considering Honda’s recent design trend of going increasingly off-road macho with its crossovers, the Prologue is surprisingly car-like in design — more akin to the Civic than the CR-V.
It’s a good call, as the Prologue looks clean, modern and attractive from just about every angle. Earlier this year, we described it as one of the crossovers that’s actually a station wagon, and while it comes across as more sport-ute in person — it’s bigger than you expect from the pictures — it does have a cleanliness that’s more in line with traditional two-box design. Honda’s designers worked diligently to bring their own look to the Ultium chassis, and they succeeded brilliantly; to my eyes, at least, the Prologue is not only the best-looking product to ride on GM’s new architecture so far, it’s also one of the better-looking new SUVs on the market, period.
Inside, it’s simple, modern — and expansive
Climbing into the driver’s seat for the first time, I did as I always do in a car: I jacked the seat all the way back. At which point, something odd happened — my feet were almost unable to reach the pedals. I’ve had that happen in full-size trucks and giant body-on-frame SUVs, but never a midsize crossover.
Simply put, this crossover is surprisingly capacious for its class. Honda proudly notes on the Prologue’s website that it boasts “over 136.9 cubic feet of room,” which is a bit of an unorthodox measurement — most automakers only discuss the room behind the seats that can fold down, on account of the fact that few of us are filling up the entire volume of our car with ping-pong balls. Still, there’s no disputing that this is a roomy ride. (I suspect it’ll be a big hit with Uber drivers, especially in municipalities pushing ride-hail companies towards EVs.)
The Prologue’s interior.Photo by Will Sabel Courtney
Honda does a good job making the most of that space, too. Up front, the impressive legroom goes hand in hand with a ton of storage spaces and cubbyholes. (Props to Honda for installing a vertically oriented wireless phone charger that actually holds your device in place during driving.) The flat floor means legroom in the second row is also commendable. The cargo bay isn’t enormous — the load floor is on the high side, and the curved roofline cuts into usable space — but it’s at least enough for a quartet’s airline carry-ons or a dozen paper grocery bags.
The dashboard is straightforward almost to the point of spartan, even with the contrasting gray or tan trim that livens up the interior. The strips of piano black plastic and the black-framed screens rising up from the dash give the whole affair a bit of a Best Buy feel; the displays aren’t as neatly integrated as in, say, a Subaru Outback, but they are clearly visible without dipping your eyes too far from the road. Plus, said displays are easy to read, with high contrast and clear icons — and unlike other new Ultium products, wired and wireless Apple CarPlay is available. (There’s also built-in Google services, if you’d prefer to use those.)
The instrument panel is almost simple to a fault.Photo by Will Sabel CourtneyDelightfully, Apple CarPlay still works here.Photo by Will Sabel Courtney
Range is about average for an EV crossover, but the Prologue feels a little slow
Slow by the aforementioned EV crossover standards, at least. My test driver and I did a couple of informal standing-start launches on an empty California straightaway, and both his watch and my butt-ometer were in agreement: the AWD Prologue runs from 0-60 miles per hour in the seven-second range. (288 horsepower isn’t all that much when you’re hauling around 5,000-plus pounds of crossover.) The Prologue never feels slow in real-world driving, but it lacks the surprising punch we’ve come to expect from EVs.
That said, range matters a lot more to the average mainstream EV buyers than outrunning Bimmers at stoplights. My co-driver and I used around 45 percent of the 85-kWh battery’s charge to cover 110 miles of road; that said, the route mostly consisted of tightly wound roads that encouraged both of us to express our inner hoon as we attempted to discern whether, as Honda’s engineers told us, their software updates had succeeded in giving the Prologue the brand’s signature light-and-direct steering feel. Drive it like we did, and you’ll see around 245-250 miles of range on a charge. Drive it like your average family crossover driver will, and you’ll go farther on a charge.
Also, keep in mind that my seat time was spent driving the top-shelf Elite trim (the only one Honda had for the event), which offers the least amount of range; the EPA quotes it at 273 miles, due to its standard all-wheel-drive and larger wheels. Opt for an AWD version with smaller rims and you’ll get a claimed 281 miles on a range; choose a front-wheel-drive variant, and that climbs to 296.
The Prologue’s wagon-like design hides a surprising amount of interior volume.Photo by Will Sabel Courtney
When the time rolls around to recharge that battery, Honda says it can take on DC power at up to 150 kW, enough to add a splash of 65 miles to a (mostly empty) battery in 10 minutes or so.
To streamline the charging process, every Prologue comes with 60 kWh of free Electrify America juice and an EVGo charging credit, though the latter amount depends on which charging package you choose at purchase. Folks with home garages looking to commit to the EV life might lean towards Option A, which includes a Level 2 charging station and a $500 credit towards installation as well as $100 in EVGo bucks; folks who park on the street or outside, meanwhile, might prefer Options B or C, which include either a portable charging kit, a $250 Honda Home Electrification credit (for what, I’m not exactly sure) and $300 in EVGo credit or no cable and $750 in EVGo money. Considering a good third-party portable charger runs about $300, I’d go with A or C, personally.
Honda did a great job of giving the Prologue a distinctive appearance, but it’s not hard to deduce who actually builds it if you look closely. The buttons on the steering wheel and dashboard are obvious GM pieces, as are the wiper and turn signal stalks. Even the window glass bears GM logos. Its wheelbase is identical to that of the Blazer EV and Cadillac Lyriq, while its motors are the same as the Equinox EV.
Those Ultium roots admittedly prompted a note of hesitation from the habitually pessimistic automotive journalists on my test drive, who were quick to criticize the GM platform based on the recent gremlins that have plagued the electric Blazer. Personally, I’m willing to give the platform the benefit of the doubt; the history of the automobile is filled with cars that suffered teething problems before going on to great success, and given that General Motors has largely staked its future on this architecture, it seems likely the issues will be sorted out quickly.
Assuming any potential bugs are worked out before launch, this Honda also carved out a slightly distinct niche with this EV SUV. The Prologue slots neatly between Chevy’s electric Blazer and Equinox in power, size and price, and the simple fact that it still offers Apple CarPlay will arguably make it the pick of the Ultium crossover litter for many families. And if it winds up being eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit — which a Honda spokesperson told me they expect will happen — the Prologue will wind up only costing $1,000 more than the similarly sized Passport. At that point, the arguments against going electric start to grow appreciably flimsier.
Honda Prologue
The Prologue is Honda’s first electric crossover, although it’s actually built by General Motors, based on their Ultium platform like all GM’s new EVs. It’s a two-row SUV priced and sized similarly to Honda’s gas-powered Passport.
Specs
Powertrain
85 kWh battery + front-mounted electric motor / front and rear-mounted electric motors; front- or all-wheel-drive
Photo by Will Sabel Courtney
