Honda will call its GM-based EV the Prologue

Honda has chosen a forward-looking name for the battery-electric crossover that it is developing with General Motors for the 2024 model year: Prologue.

The Honda crossover will use GM's Ultium platform and batteries, but Honda will develop the vehicle's body style and interior. The Honda-GM venture also will develop a battery-electric Acura crossover in the 2024 calendar year, the company said.

The Prologue is expected to go on sale in early 2024, the company said.

"Our first volume Honda BEV will begin our transition to electrification and the name Honda Prologue signals the role it will play in leading to our zero-emission future," Dave Gardner, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., said in a statement.

Honda already makes a small EV for the Japan and European markets, marketed simply as the "e." But that vehicle is considered a niche product, while Honda expects the Prologue to be its first volume EV.

Gardner said during a media presentation that Honda will use its own e:Architecture platform in the second half of the decade to create a series of new EVs. He declined to say how that would affect the the company's EV collaboration with GM.

Gardner also declined to say where the Prologue and the coming Acura EV will be manufactured, or offer vehicle specifications. A slide included as part of the media presentation suggested the Honda EV would be smaller than the Acura EV.

Honda expects annual Prologue sales to quickly eclipse deliveries of its gasoline-powered Passport crossover but to remain below the Pilot crossover in volume. Honda sold 39,567 Passports last year in the U.S. and 123,813 Pilots.

Honda in Canada sold 2,734 Passports in 2020, up slightly from the 2,678. The automaker sold 7,709 Pilots in Canada, down from the 8,241 the year before.

Gardner did not offer a specific sales number or timeline but said the Prologue should ramp quickly.

Automotive News reported in January, citing industry sources, that the Honda-branded EV will start production in 2023 at GM's crossover plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, where GM currently builds the gasoline-powered Chevrolet Equinox and Blazer. In April, without mentioning Honda, GM confirmed it will invest US$1 billion in that plant to prepare for EV production.

Industry sources also have told Automotive News that the Acura-branded EV will be built starting in 2024 alongside the upcoming Cadillac Lyriq EV at GM's plant in Spring Hill, Tenn.

The Lyriq is a midsize vehicle, which suggests the Acura will be as well. The Prologue is likely to be a compact crossover, since that is the most popular mainstream U.S. segment outside of pickups.

Honda said in April that it expects 100 per cent of its sales in North America to be zero-emission vehicles by 2040, including both battery-electric models and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.