The 2024 Honda Prologue electric car probably won't be coming to Australia - but here's why it's so important

Honda has revealed its latest fully electric model in the US - the Honda Prologue, yet another in a list of Honda electric vehicles too distant for Australian shores.

The Prologue is the first Honda vehicle produced from its joint venture with General Motors. It is roughly mid-sized, similar in shape to the CR-V, and while it appears to share its underpinnings, or at least the ‘Ultium’ battery technology, with the Chevrolet Blazer EV in the US, it is clearly far more than just a badge swap, with distinctive Honda styling, both inside and out.

It is Honda’s largest electric vehicle yet, much bigger than the Honda e hatch available in Japan and Europe, and the e:NS1 small SUV, an electrified HR-V for the Chinese market.

Powertrain details have not yet been revealed for the Prologue, but it is Honda’s largest electric vehicle globally, with a wheelbase which eclipses the new, and even larger CR-V in terms of length and width. It is also said to be offered with the option of all-wheel drive. Impressive spec items include huge concept-car style 21-inch alloy wheels, and huge displays measuring at 11.0-inches for the digital dash, and 11.3-inches for the multimedia touchscreen.

Expect a healthy range, with this battery architecture in other applications offering ranges upward of 398km. The Prologue is not set to go on sale in its home market of America until 2024.

But one of the most interesting notes from the reveal of this new EV was Honda’s strategy around selling it. The American division is “not going to wait until 2024 to attract EV buyers”, instead offering CR-V hybrid customers the option of shorter two-year loan terms to facilitate an upgrade to the Prologue in what it sees as a “natural progression” from a hybrid to a fully electric vehicle for its customers.

Whether this innovative strategy to try and up-sell buyers into an EV works is yet to be seen. Honda plans to have 30 fully electric models on sale globally by 2030, although thus far few have been seen, and none have been confirmed for Australia.

We don’t expect to see any vehicles based on the GM joint-venture platform in Australia, with Honda shifting its focus away from smaller export regions to those where it can build vehicles. As such it is investing in a battery facility in the US, and focusing on getting EVs to market quickly in China.

The Australian division is currently focused on ensuring there are hybrid versions of its increasingly limited range of models, with the Civic and HR-V hybrids being the most recent arrivals. The larger ZR-V will also arrive in Australia before the end of 2023, and this car, which should rival larger ‘small SUVs’ like the Nissan Qashqai, is also expected to have a similar hybrid drivetrain to the new Civic.

The next-generation CR-V will also eventually arrive in Australia, possibly not for another 12 months, as its production is primarily also focused on North America. Interestingly, Honda expects 50 per cent of new-generation CR-V sales to be hybrids. It uses a larger hybrid system, combining a 2.0-litre atkinson-cycle four-cylinder petrol engine with two electric motors (for a combined output of 152kW/335Nm)  in a similar layout to the popular Toyota RAV4.

Honda’s new ‘agency’ strategy in Australia, which has seen a reduction in the number of models it sells as well as a more limited spread of variants, all oriented toward the top-end of the price-scale, has seen a sharp reduction in sales over the last 24 months. The brand has moved 11,067 units to the end of September in 2022, down 17.8 per cent year-on-year, well off course from the yearly highs of over 40,000 units it was achieving just a few years ago when popular and lower-cost models like the Jazz were still on sale.