- The Honda Prologue's sales performance seems unstoppable.
- The GM-based EV convinced over 25,000 people in the United States it's worth the $48,795 starting price.
The Honda Prologue is proving to be this year’s underdog. A badge-engineered Chevrolet Blazer EV with the added benefit of Apple CarPlay, the Prologue is Honda’s only electric offering in the United States. Its future was uncertain, especially considering the not-so-rosy state of General Motors’ Ultium efforts at the beginning of the year.
But what started as a big bag of uncertainties eventually became a resounding success. The Prologue is a hit and it proves Honda is capable of stepping up its electrification game with everything it entails–good lease deals, readily available inventory and an expansive service network.
Honda sold 6,823 Prologue EVs last month alone and 25,132 units from January through November. To put things into perspective, Honda sold more Prologue EVs in a single month than Volvo’s two-EV portfolio managed in 11 months. Year-to-date, the Volvo EX40 and C40 amassed 4,819 sales in the United States and just 493 sales in November. (Yes, it’s bad for Volvo here.)
By comparison, the Chevrolet Blazer EV, which is very similar to the Honda Prologue (they’re even built in the same factory in Mexico), sold 7,998 units in the three months of the previous quarter. Similarly, the Cadillac Lyriq scored 7,224 sales in Q3, while the smaller Chevrolet Equinox EV saw 9,772 sales in the previous quarter.
General Motors doesn’t offer monthly sales figures for its cars, so it’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, but from what we have available, it’s clear that Honda is doing something better than GM even though the cars are very similar. The Prologue also did better than the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Toyota bZ4X and Nissan Ariya in October.
Gallery: 2024 Honda Prologue
At the end of the day, the answer to selling more EVs might be very simple: give people a solid choice with a decent range, decent looks and decent specs. No gimmicks, just something that ticks enough boxes to convince people they’re not making a mistake.
In the case of the Prologue, it offers Apple CarPlay, something that GM decided against in its latest EVs, up to 296 miles of range and a maximum DC charging speed of 150 kilowatts. It doesn’t excel in any way, but it’s just enough for a lot of people.
