2024 Honda Prologue EV: This Is Everything We Know

• The Honda Prologue EV has been caught testing for the first time.
• Honda's first mass-market U.S.-bound EV is nowhere near ready, but it's coming.
• It will take on the likes of the Ioniq 5, Mach-E and ID.4.

Everything we know about the Prologue

As its launch grows closer and closer, Honda has started testing the Prologue in heavy camouflage. Luckily, our spy photographers were able to capture the new Honda in testing. It doesn't look like much right now, and these shots are clearly of a very early test mule. However, that doesn't mean there aren't important insights we can glean from them. The first is that it looks like the Prologue will share an EV platform with the upcoming 2024 Blazer EV from Chevrolet.

The shots reveal that the Prologue will share important hard points with the Blazer EV — these are pieces of the car's body structure that can't be moved. A good example of this on the Chevy and the Prologue is the location of the door handles, the cut lines for the doors, and where the front pillar meets the hood. They all look quite similar on both cars, and it stands to reason that these two SUVs are going to be built on the EV architecture the two companies have been working on.

Earlier this year we were shown a sketch of the new Prologue, and the SUV we see here looks similar enough to that sketch. It seems safe to assume that the eventual production Prologue will be a boxy, nearly slab-sided EV with the simplicity that's accompanied by the styling of a number of new Honda vehicles lately. Picture a more mature, minimalistic design approach like the one we saw from the new Civic and its hatchback sibling.

It will also compete in a class that is growing quickly and will have to take on the likes of the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Kia EV6, the Mustang Mach-E, the Volkswagen ID.4 and of course the Blazer EV. That means it will be a two-row crossover with room for up to five passengers and will be similar in length to the current Honda Passport, but it will be far lower due to a floor-mounted battery pack.

What we know about the Honda Prologue's powertrain, range and drivetrain

Speaking of batteries, some specs on the 2024 Blazer EV are already out, so it isn't too difficult to imagine what will power the Prologue. We know it will use the same Ultium battery technology that's underpinning many GM products, and we can extrapolate from there what kind of range the Prologue will offer. Interestingly, the Blazer EV will offer front-, rear- and all-wheel-drive configurations, but the Honda will likely drop the RWD option. Front- or all-wheel drive is the way Honda has taken most of its SUVs, and we don't expect the automaker to change now.

As for range, well, the preliminary specs on the Blazer EV reveal some information about that, too. The base FWD Blazer EV gets up to 247 miles of range, and a larger battery pack pumps that number up to somewhere between 290 and 320 miles of range. A range figure of 300 miles seems to be the sweet spot right now, and we'd be surprised if Honda didn't offer at least one version of the Prologue with 300 miles or more of total range.

When will the Honda Prologue come out?

Honda has already said that the Prologue will go on sale in 2024, which means our first look at the finished product will come in the spring or summer of 2023. With the launch of the Prologue still nearly a year away, it's possible that these figures will change by the time Honda's new all-electric SUV is fully revealed. That said, this quickly growing two-row EV SUV segment is pretty consistent across the board, and we'd be surprised to see Honda miss the mark with its first truly mass-market EV for the States.

Edmunds says

Do you think Honda is late to the electric SUV party or will the Prologue arrive just in time?