• Honda is reported to be interested in reviving the sports coupe as part of its transition to electric mobility.
• According to rumour out of Japan, a successor to the Prelude is being prepared for 2028.
• The Honda Prelude that we knew left the North American market at the end of 2001.
To be clear, Honda has not announced the return of the Prelude to its lineup. However, a rumour out of Japan indicates that Honda is considering developing a successor, an all-electric coupe that could see the light of day by 2028. The vehicle would be one of the many battery-powered models the company plans to produce.
A silent successor to the sporty NSX could also be in the plans.
This all makes sense considering Honda's previous announcements. First off, CEO Toshihiro Mibe last April presented the company's electric plan, which promised 30 models by 2030. Not all of them will be sold in North America, but some certainly will. In all, Honda hopes to produce about 2 million electric vehicles a year by the end of the decade.
The outlining of that plan is this interesting statement from the CEO: “We are currently studying the possibility of introducing two global sports models, specialty models and flagship models.”
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Best Car magazine in Japan was quick to interpret this to mean one of them would be the spiritual replacement for the Prelude. The outlet further reported that the flagship electric vehicle will use solid-state batteries, units that are lighter and more energy-dense than the technology currently used. The magazine referred to that car as the next NSX.
Honda has said that solid-state batteries will begin appearing in the company's electric vehicles starting in the second half of the 2020s. The firm is also working on two all-electric vehicle platforms in-house, one for compact models, the other for large vehicles.
As for the original Prelude, it certainly left its mark during its 20-odd years of production. We'll see if the company succeeds in reviving the model in electric form, or at least the spirit of it.