Honda is getting ready to reveal its first electric car developed alongside General Motors.
The Prologue is an SUV set to hit American showrooms in 2023, underpinned by General Motors’ latest Ultium battery technology.
General Motors says its Ultium battery technology supports a total electric range of 724km, although it’s not clear what size battery is required to deliver that figure.
The General has yet to release any cars using its first-generation Ultium batteries. The new architecture’s rollout will kick off with the GMC Hummer range, with the Cadillac Lyriq to follow early 2022.
The Prologue will be one of two General Motors-developed electric cars in for Honda (the second will be an Acura), before the brand rolls out its e:Architecture in the second half of the 2020s.
Models on the e:Architecture will be launched in North America first before being made available elsewhere in the world.
In his first major event as CEO, Toshihiro Mibe earlier in 2021 committed Honda to ditching internal-combustion engines for its cars by 2040.
While a number of marques have stated this year they’ll be electric-only by 2030, Honda is the first mainstream brand, and the first top 10 automaker, to set a goal of going fully-electric.
Honda’s interim targets include 40 per cent of sales in ‘major markets’ being electric (EV) and hydrogen fuel cell (FCEV) by 2030.
The share of EVs and FCEVs in major markets will rise to 80 per cent by 2035, before hitting 100 per cent globally by 2040.
At present Honda sells only a smattering of electric vehicles, including the Honda e hatchback for Europe and Japan, and a clutch of models based on the HR-V in China.
In Australia, Honda is preparing to introduce the Civic hybrid when the new hatch touches down in 2022. The current e hatchback remains off the table for now.
