What This Electric SUV Lacks In Originality, It Makes Up For In Comfort

This electric SUV came into its company’s lineup at a pivotal step in the brand’s SUV story, carrying forward a legacy of traditionally styled compact and midsize models, while guiding the brand into an electric future. Its ancestors carved reputations for practicality, comfort, and family-friendly utility, and this thoroughly modern utility vehicle chooses to enhance those same qualities with an electric platform to add a degree of energy efficiency missing from many traditional SUVs.

Fuel Economy

107/91/99 MPGe city/highway/combined (FWD)

Make

Honda

Model

Prologue

Segment

Midsize SUV

Infotainment & Features

7 /10

Unlike many competitors, it doesn’t lean into futuristic, attention-grabbing styling to signal its electric propulsion. Then again, the “EV look” has begun to spread throughout the ICE space, so it’s only fair that this SUV turns the tables with a more measured approach. And in avoiding the razor-like design cues and swoopy rooflines, its conservative blocky shape plays into a traditional SUV suit—a roomy and comfortable interior.

The Honda Prologue Shares DNA With Several EVs, But Is Unique In Presentation

Honda Partnered With General Motors To Co-Develop EVs Using GM’s Ultium Platform

Honda

The Honda Prologue traces its origins back to 2020, when Honda and General Motors formalized a partnership to co-develop electric vehicles on GM’s BEV3 platform—a flexible EV architecture for unibody vehicles—using Ultium batteries and motors. Honda was still mapping out its long-term EV strategy, and the collaboration offered a faster route to market, since BEV3 was designed to support a wide range of vehicle sizes, battery configurations, and drivetrains.

By leveraging GM’s scalable technology, Honda could launch its first North American EV sooner, while simultaneously working on its own dedicated EV platforms for the future (which it has now announced), and the result was the Honda Prologue (as well as the Acura ZDX), which integrates the Ultium foundation with Honda’s own approach to design and packaging. That is the primary reason that the Prologue looks so different from other similarly-sized BEV3 vehicles.

The Honda Prologue Stands Out In The GM/Honda Deal That Yielded Four Equally-Sized SUVs

Chevrolet

Honda’s collaboration with General Motors gave the Honda Prologue access to the Ultium platform, the same base as the almost identically sized Chevrolet Blazer EV (the Acura ZDX and Cadillac Lyriq are also the same size). While they share core hardware, they diverge in execution.

GM-Based EV SUV Specification Comparison

The Blazer EV embraces a performance-slanted identity with bold styling and sporty design cues. In contrast, the Honda Prologue takes a more restrained, traditional SUV approach with clean lines and familiar design elements.

The Honda Prologue Takes On More Expensive Rivals In Competitive EV Market

Mercedes Benz

The Honda Prologue enters the electric SUV market as a more attainable option compared to similarly sized luxury rivals like the Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV and Tesla Model X. Luxury EVs can better absorb costly components and technology, but the Prologue stays grounded while delivering generous passenger room and cargo practicality that rivals more premium models. By contrast, the EQE emphasizes refinement and advanced tech, while the Tesla Model X highlights benchmark performance.

Non-GM-Based EV SUV Specification Comparison

The Honda Prologue Is Familiar And Comfortable Inside

Honda

The Honda Prologue reflects the brand’s long-standing focus on practicality and passenger-friendliness, with a cabin that feels familiar to SUV buyers. The interior emphasizes clean lines and intuitive ergonomics, placing controls where drivers expect them, rather than chasing overly futuristic flourishes that seem to be the EV norm. This helps potential Prologue buyers transition from traditional gasoline SUVs.

Passenger comfort is a priority in the Honda Prologue, with generous space in both rows of seats and thoughtful storage solutions scattered throughout the cabin. Cargo versatility is another highlight, with the wide, flat load floor that has become a measuring stick for SUV versatility, and split-folding rear seats that expand capacity for larger and longer items. Integrated technology rounds out the experience, led by a large central touchscreen and a comprehensive suite of standard driver-assistance features that include:

• Frontal collision mitigation
• Lane keeping assistance
• Adaptive cruise control
• Blind spot warning
• Reverse auto braking
• Rear parking sensors

The Honda Prologue Carries On The Honda SUV Tradition

Honda

The 2025 Honda Prologue slots into the Honda showroom between the Honda Passport and Pilot SUVs, priced nearer to the Passport than the larger Pilot. The three are styled similarly, with traditional clean panels, though the Prologue appears less rugged than the youthful Passport and less old-school than the veteran Honda Pilot. Although it can’t touch its stablemates on interior space and versatility, Prologue stays true to Honda’s SUV ideals with a wide, flat load floor and accommodations for people plus cargo.

Honda SUV Specification Comparison

Like The Toyota bZ4X, The Honda Prologue Is Ideally Positioned To Attract Buyers

Toyota

When you’re a one-trick EV pony in your respective brand’s lineup, you have to try to appeal to all potential buyers, and both the Honda Prologue and Toyota bZ4X (shortened to simply bZ for 2026) got it right, in the highly desirable crossover segment. In their designs, the bZ4X oozes futurism, while the Prologue relies on familiarity, and while the Toyota is smaller and more urban-friendly, the Prologue goes all-in on passenger comfort. As for cargo-carrying versatility, the two are remarkably similar.

Honda Prologue And Toyota bZ4X Spec Comparisons

How The Honda Prologue Competes In An Important Segment

Honda

The Honda Prologue competes in one of the trendiest segments in the automotive market, and certainly the most competitive in the EV space, as companies appeal to buyers looking for a combination of affordability, efficiency, and interior space and versatility. Buyers expect tremendous efficiency to offset the higher purchase costs of going electric, while interior design and usability play a major role in making EVs viable as day-to-day vehicles, especially for one-vehicle families.

Against rivals like the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Volkswagen ID.4, and Tesla Model Y, the Honda Prologue positions itself as a value-driven contender with a clean, traditional SUV layout rather than pushing futuristic (often quirky and polarizing) designs. That restraint is intentional, aimed at cautious EV-adopters, Honda loyalists, and SUV traditionalists. In the broader EV market, familiarity does not breed contempt, and the Prologue serves as both a transitional journeyman and star player for Honda.

The Honda Prologue Steps Up In A Crowded, High-Leverage Segment

Michael Frank

Compared simply on purchase price, the Honda Prologue positions itself between the segment-champion Tesla Model Y and the more compact Volvo EX30, in terms of interior packaging. Larger than the EX30, the Prologue offers significantly more passenger room and better cargo options, making it better suited to families prioritizing versatility. The Tesla Model Y offers considerably better cargo versatility in a slightly smaller interior (mostly due to the differences in rooflines between the two).

Electric SUV Specification Comparison

The Modern Honda Prologue Challenges Traditional SUVs

Ford

Despite its fully-electric platform, the Honda Prologue shares much of its styling philosophy with traditional ICE SUVs like the Ford Explorer and Kia Telluride. All three prioritize clean, upright lines and a strong road presence over a future-looking profile, though Prologue can’t match the others in overall volume for people and stuff. Arguably, though, the Prologue is more space-efficient and comfortable for each passenger, and offers more cargo space when all its seats are in use.

Honda Prologue And ICE SUVs Spec Comparison

The Honda Prologue Prioritizes Personal Comfort Over Modern Presentation

The Honda Prologue represents a significant step into the EV era, but it does so without the flash that is common among EVs, preferring the familiarity of Honda and SUV traditions. That could be interpreted as unimaginative, but it adheres to qualities that have long defined Honda’s SUVs—a familiar design language, and interior comfort, practicality, and versatility.

For existing Honda customers who may be thinking about experimenting with electric vehicles, that familiarity is reassuring, with the Honda Prologue meeting expectations for interior space and comfort, ergonomic simplicity, and cargo flexibility, while stepping up with the benefits of electric performance, serenity, and commendable efficiency.

Looking ahead, the current Honda Prologue may be viewed as transitional, with Honda stepping away from the GM cookie-cutter EV model and moving its EV program entirely in-house. Future models will likely lean more heavily into unique presentations and advanced technologies, but for now, Prologue shows how Honda intends to bring its loyal SUV base along for the ride, rather than forcing a break with tradition.