It’s truthful to say Honda’s been behind the ball in the case of electrical autos. Chevrolet launched the Bolt EV in 2016, Ford launched the Mustang Mach-E in 2020 and Tesla’s been doing its factor for much longer than that. Except for compliance-car experiments just like the Honda Match EV, any Individuals who needed a battery-powered Honda needed to wait till final yr when the Prologue burst onto the scene.
And because it seems, there have been a whole lot of Individuals ready for simply that. Honda moved over 33,000 Prologues final yr, touchdown it the No.7 spot among the many best-selling electrical fashions and No.4 amongst non-Teslas. This got here as a shock to most of us who watch this {industry} intently. In spite of everything, the Prologue is basically a Basic Motors EV beneath—hardly a critical electrical effort from Honda. And it did not even actually go on sale till the center of 2024.
Honda is now taking some classes from this case, one in all its executives informed InsideEVs in a media briefing this week. Prologue patrons report “belief within the Honda model” as the highest purpose for his or her purchases, American Honda vp of vehicle gross sales Lance Woelfer mentioned.
It additionally helps that Honda patrons already affiliate the model with greener vehicles, Woelfer mentioned. Though the Toyota Prius has successfully grow to be the iPhone of hybrids, it was truly Honda that launched America’s first hybrid automobile in 1999, the Perception.
“We have had a hybrid technique for fairly a while to develop that shopper base that may have the chance to maneuver in that route,” he mentioned, which means in the direction of all-electric vehicles. “We needed to make it possible for we had an choice for them. We do not need them going exterior the model.”
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So, the Prologue’s gangbusters success should not have been a shock in any respect. It additional proves one thing we already knew: Individuals are hungry for electrical vehicles from the Japanese manufacturers they know, belief and imagine to be dependable—the precise manufacturers that individuals look to for excellent gasoline financial system and but have been slowest to impress.
Woelfer mentioned he isn’t shocked at how rapidly the Prologue took off final yr, particularly since Honda sellers had been asking for an EV to promote. (Though America’s automobile sellers have been a few of the loudest voices pushing in opposition to speedy uptake of EVs, apparently an honest chunk assist this transition.)
Picture by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
“One thing else that gave us confidence is the sellers have been letting us know they have been listening to from customers, ‘We’d like an EV automobile,’” he mentioned. “It actually form of met the wants of these customers and the requests we have been getting from sellers to have an EV product.”
This goes to indicate the ability of branding within the EV transition. The shift to EVs has given aggressive early movers like Tesla and Hyundai-Kia a gap to steal clients from rival manufacturers to a level they wouldn’t have been capable of in any other case. Many automakers say their EVs are profitable extra “conquests,” industry-speak for patrons who are available in from different manufacturers. And that is sensible. As a result of electrical choices are nonetheless restricted, individuals intent on ditching fuel could also be extra open to contemplating new makes.
But many automobile patrons nonetheless have a deep loyalty to, and powerful associations with, sure manufacturers. They don’t need an EV from simply anyone. They need a Honda. Or a Toyota. Taking the plunge into an EV is an enormous way of life change, and it stands to purpose that many patrons will need to go together with what they know.
Picture by: Honda
Research bear this out. A Yahoo Finance-Ipsos ballot from 2023 requested Individuals which automobile manufacturers they’d be most definitely to purchase an EV or a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) from. Honda got here in third place, regardless of not having any PHEVs or EVs on the U.S. market at the moment. Toyota claimed first, though it solely had one EV with somewhat lackluster specs, the bZ4X. Tesla, by far the highest vendor of EVs on this nation, wound up in second.
EV gross sales development slowed within the U.S. in 2024. And an enormous a part of that could be that EV-curious patrons simply don’t see sufficient choices available on the market that talk to them. The subsequent wave of EV adoption rests on common automobile patrons with sensible issues—not early adopters. In different phrases, Individuals who most likely lean extra towards Toyota or Honda than Tesla.
Fortuitously for them, each automakers are getting their acts collectively. Toyota, which has stubbornly caught to hybrids and never put a lot firepower behind EVs, says it’s realized from the complaints individuals had in regards to the bZ4X. A three-row Toyota EV is coming in 2026.
Picture by: InsideEVs
The Honda 0-Sequence SUV and Saloon.
Honda’s subsequent EV, the Acura RSX, goes into manufacturing late this yr in Ohio, debuting the automaker’s next-generation {hardware} and software program. It’ll be adopted by Honda’s 0-Sequence sedan and SUV, and the Sony Honda Afeela 1.
Within the coming yr, Woelfer expects the Prologue to maintain chugging alongside and be a frontrunner within the phase, though he says there are “a couple of issues occurring now which are a bit of exterior of our management which will have some affect.” Honda, like different automakers, says it’s holding a detailed eye on whether or not the incoming Trump administration will get rid of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score, a transfer that might depress EV demand.
“Affordability is one thing that’s key, and that affect is one thing that we’ll have to deal with because it comes ahead,” he mentioned.
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