2024 Honda Prologue Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The Prologue is about as near to “normal,” looks-wise, as any EV we’ve seen to date. The base EX and mid EX-L trims are available in Canada in four colours, but Touring adds Sonic Grey and Pacific Blue as additional options. In any colour, it could easily slip under the radar. The front end sports the traditional Honda “H” logo badge, centred on a completely smooth and flawless black panel which betrays the fact that there’s nothing requiring air cooling on the other side of that sheet metal. Honda offers a variety of accessories, such as skid plates and side cladding, which allow for personalization. One option lends a more rugged and functional look to the space between the headlights, making the grille appear more complex, if that’s your bag.

Viewed from the side, the Prologue appears low, which is really thanks to its length. It’s roughly 7.5 centimetres longer than the Honda Passport, but the Passport is 20 cm taller, so the Prologue’s proportions are more like those of a cartoon gangster’s car than an off-road-going SUV. The large wheels—19-inch standard, 21 on Touring—further underscore the low roof, and the new font spelling “Honda” across the back reflects Honda’s foray into new methods of propulsion.

Inside, our Touring trim tester felt quite nice. Note the tester is in U.S. specification and shows a brown and black interior colour scheme, while black on black is the only option on every Prologue sold in Canada. The EX comes with cloth seating surfaces, while the other two come with leather. The layout of the dash bears a reasonable resemblance to those of recently revamped stablemates like the Honda CR-V, Accord, and Civic, with one notable omission: The Prologue does not hide air vents behind a honeycomb grille. Piano black plastic occupies that space instead, topped by a swath of upholstery material that spans the dash and appears again inside each door. Like its exterior, the Prologue’s interior feels almost run-of-the-mill, in a good way. It leans upscale, but it is, above all, familiar.

In Canada, the Prologue skips the front-wheel drive (FWD) setup available in the United States and makes all-wheel drive (AWD) standard equipment. This dual-motor setup combines for 288 hp and 333 lb-ft of torque. With the Touring trim’s 21-inch wheels, this powertrain lands at 439 kilometres of range. On the EX or EX-L trims with the 19s, range comes in at 452 kilometres.

Honda reps told us they paid particular attention to giving the Prologue authentically Honda driving dynamics, and we were pleased to find that it did feel familiar. We spent most of our time in the middle regenerative braking setting, “Normal,” and observed only minimal extra deceleration—the car still allows you to coast for a while in this mode. The Prologue also has a one-pedal drive setting which delivers a more standard, all-or-nothing EV braking experience in which lifting off the accelerator is followed by immediate deceleration. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the lowest setting makes for a very typical driving experience, and it’s a lovely option to ease the transition for anyone considering the Prologue as their first EV.

The Prologue’s 3,094-millimetre wheelbase is the longest in its class, and it makes for a comfortable ride, even on the larger wheels. At highway speeds, we felt that the cabin did not quite match Honda’s description: “remarkably serene and quiet.” However, the road and wind noise did emphasize the normalcy of the driving experience.

Throttle, brake, and steering response can all be quickened by simply selecting Sport mode, which also firms up the feel of the Prologue’s steering. We were pleasantly surprised at how much fun we were able to have behind the wheel on the winding mountain roads of Napa Valley where the Prologue was launched, particularly given the size of the vehicle.

Overall, the Prologue delivers a driving experience that belies its size and its powertrain.

In another welcome divergence from a popular EV path, Honda has given the Prologue traditional door handles. This seemingly minor decision helps minimize the number of adjustments a Prologue owner would have to make, thereby greasing the path to EV (or, at least, Prologue) adoption.

In the main cabin area, the Prologue has a total of up to 3,163 litres of passenger volume, an advantage of roughly 170 litres over its Cadillac platform-mate (the Lyriq). This is most felt in the legroom, which comes to an impressive 1,000 millimetres even in the second row (1,052 mm in the first). Headroom stats are less compelling, at 1,006 mm up front and 968 mm in the back seat (or 970/932 mm on upper trims with the panoramic sunroof), but the reclinable rear seats do afford back-seat passengers a little extra margin, and the panoramic moonroof helps to brighten things up.

Heated front seats and dual-zone climate control are standard. Driver’s seat memory and a heated steering wheel become standard with the EX-L trim, and the Touring adds front seat ventilation. Front passengers also enjoy two-tier storage thanks to the shelf forming the bottom of the centre console, and the space between them is wide enough to easily accommodate two smartphones placed side by side.

EX-L and Touring trims both come with a hands-free power liftgate. The cargo area accommodates between 671 and 714 litres, depending on the trim, and this has a flat load floor that’s relatively high off the ground, both factors which should make for easy loading in and out. However, the hatch area is incredibly long. A shorter person needing to access the full available space of between 1,543 and 1,634 litres will struggle to reach the release that folds down the back seats. The Prologue does not have “frunk” storage space beneath the hood, but it does have a deep compartment hidden below the load floor, easily accessed by lifting the liner.

Keyless access with key-fob activated remote start is standard on the Prologue in Canada. It also comes with a standard wireless charger, and it’s the pocket-style kind—this is a first for Honda, but familiar territory for GM, which probably explains its presence here. Four total USB-C ports, two in the front and two in the back, offer further charging options. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, too, running through an 11.3-inch infotainment screen. A separate 11-inch screen hosts the configurable digital driver-information display. A head-up display can also be had in the Prologue, but only with the Touring trim.

Google Built-In is also standard, meaning Google Maps is native tech for the Prologue. It includes a route-planning feature, as seen in many EVs, which can locate recommended EV chargers and initiate battery preconditioning to prepare the vehicle for DC fast charging.

EX-L and Touring trims get a 12-speaker Bose premium audio system, which Honda says was developed with Bose specifically for the Prologue. In addition to your tunes, the speakers also help to highlight the Prologue’s Active Sound Control, a feature Honda developed to compensate for the silence of the powertrain. This adds in artificial sounds accompanying actions like acceleration and deceleration, and it does so more emphatically in Sport mode. We generally skew a tad cynical about such efforts, but the sound effects genuinely did add to the sporty driving experience.

As we would have expected, the Honda Sensing suite of advanced driver-assistance technologies is standard on the Prologue. What we wouldn’t necessarily have expected is the addition of new features to that array. These include standard rear cross-traffic braking and blind-zone steering assist, both interventional technologies new to Honda.

There are a few features limited to higher trims as well: Front-park assist is not available for the Prologue EX, and both the surround-vision system and rear pedestrian alert are Touring-trim exclusives. Automatic emergency braking, forward collision alert, adaptive cruise control, and lane-keep assist are all standard, though, along with other popular and increasingly taken-for-granted features.

The Prologue is too new to have been rated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as of this writing, but Honda says it’s targeting Top Safety Pick+ and five-star overall ratings, respectively.

The 2024 Honda Prologue is offered in Canada at a base price of $62,122, including the destination fee, while the Prologue EX-L starts at $67,122 after destination and the Touring starts at $72,022. These prices allow the Prologue to qualify for the full $5,000 amount of the federal government’s iZEV rebate program available to every Canadian, as well as provincial and territorial incentive programs where they exist.

However, the base price does fall above those of immediate rivals such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model Y, Subaru Solterra, and Kia EV6 (as well as the EV6’s corporate cousin, the Hyundai Ioniq 5).

Potential Prologue owners who will be relying on public charging will be pleased to know that they’ll have many options, including Tesla Superchargers as that technology expands to include other automakers in the coming months.

The Prologue may not be the cheapest EV on the market, and it may not have the longest range. But it hits a sweet spot of affordability, usability, and user-friendliness, and it looks and feels good while doing it.

Note: Images show a US model.