Honda will sell an electric SUV built in a North American General Motors plant beginning in early 2024. Named the Prologue, the new SUV will use the Ultium battery and motor technology GM developed for use in EVs like the Detroit-built GMC Hummer electric pickup going on sale this fall.
Honda wouldn’t discuss details of the Prologue’s size, features or price, but the battery-powered EV is expected to sell in numbers between the brand’s Passport five-seat midsize SUV and Pilot family-hauling three-row model, Honda executive vice president Dave Gardner said. That’s a pretty broad range: Honda sold 21,941 Passports and 61,846 Pilots through May.
Honda will provide the 2024 Prologue’s exterior and interior design along with brand “characteristics” customers will recognize, Gardner said. The GM-Honda relationship includes development of vehicles, batteries and fuel cells.
“Our first Honda battery-electric vehicle will begin our transition to electrification, and the name Honda Prologue signals the role it will play in leading to our zero-emission future,” Gardner said.
Honda also plans to increase the number of hybrids it builds in the U.S. as it transitions away from internal combustion engines. The automaker currently produces Accord, CR-V and Insight hybrids in the U.S.
Hybrids will become the top version of each model, with features and performance to attract buyers in addition to high fuel economy. Gardner said.
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Honda also is developing its own architecture for future vehicles, researching advanced solid state batteries, and working on proprietary electric motors with supplier Hitachi. An architecture is a set of structures, parts and processes that can be used to produce a wide variety of vehicles. Vehicles from Honda’s internally developed architecture should go on sale mid-decade, Gardner said.
Honda expects 100% of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. to be powered by batteries or fuel cells — which convert hydrogen into electricity — by 2040, Gardner said.
“We expect the last (Honda) internal combustion engine vehicle sold in 2040 to be retired by 2050” in the U.S., Gardner said.
An electric SUV for Honda’s Acura brand will also use GM underpinnings and come from a GM plant in 2024. Honda hasn’t revealed that vehicle’s name or features.
Industry sources say the Prologue is likely to be assembled in GM’s Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, plant, while GM will build the Acura in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Honda and Acura are each expected to get another SUV from in the company’s alliance with GM, which the automakers announced earlier this year.