• 3 min read
Honda to pull Prologue from US after 2026
Honda says US sales of the Prologue will end after the 2026 model year, leaving it without a mainstream battery EV in the market.
Image: ITzine
Honda has confirmed that US sales of the Prologue electric crossover will end after the 2026 model year. That is a bigger shift than the loss of a single model: Prologue is currently Honda’s only full battery-electric vehicle in the US market.
Once it goes, Honda will have almost no EV presence left in the US, aside from the CR-V e:FCEV hydrogen model, which is sold only in California. Honda disclosed the end of Prologue sales in a comment to CarBuzz. The company said existing owners will still get support through dealers, including service, parts, and warranty coverage.
The Prologue had a short run even by EV standards. Honda unveiled it in 2021, but it did not go on sale until 2024. That gives it roughly two years on the market, arriving just as federal incentives had expired for some EVs in the US and buyers were increasingly gravitating either to lower-cost models or long-established bestsellers.
Recommended reading
Tesla driver overrode FSD before fatal Texas crash
Still, the Prologue was not a flop. According to industry estimates cited by the source, in its first full year on sale it trailed only the Tesla Model Y and Model 3, yet still ranked among the six best-selling EVs in the US. For a late-entry crossover built without a dedicated Honda EV platform, that is a meaningful result.
Why Honda is ending the Prologue in the US
From the start, the Prologue was both a practical move and a stopgap. Honda developed it with General Motors, using GM’s Ultium platform to get a large electric crossover to the US market more quickly.
That strategy was never likely to last. GM later revised its battery strategy and effectively moved away from Ultium as a universal base for future models, weakening the foundation that supported the Prologue in its current form. Honda has since shifted toward its own platform and has become noticeably more cautious in discussing new North American EVs.
There were warning signs earlier this year, when Honda canceled three EV models at once, including a sedan and an SUV from the O Series family. After that, the question was no longer what Honda would launch next, but whether the brand would keep any battery EV in the US at all.
US EV market keeps growing without Honda
That makes Honda’s retreat stand out more sharply because the broader market is not collapsing. According to Cox Automotive, the US EV market in 2024 topped 1.3 million vehicles sold and accounted for about 8% of the new-car market.
Against that backdrop, Honda is not leaving a tiny niche or an experimental category. Ford, Hyundai, Kia, and General Motors are all keeping EVs in their lineups and continue updating them, even as they adjust to softer-than-expected demand.
Technically, Honda will still sell a zero-emissions vehicle in the US after the Prologue exits: the CR-V e:FCEV. But that is a narrow offering with limited geographic reach and a small target audience, not a real replacement for a mass-market battery EV. For most US buyers, Honda’s lineup will once again come down to hybrids and gasoline models.
US EV sales have grown more slowly in recent quarters than many automakers expected, but they have not fallen apart. In some states, high gasoline prices are helping demand, and California already offers additional instant discounts on new and used EVs. The bigger question now is not whether the US EV segment can do without Honda, but when Honda returns with a new platform and without relying on GM.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via ITzine
