Honda's North American division made an interesting statement yesterday, saying that it wants to sell 70,000 units annually of its Prologue electric SUV in the U.S., starting the year it launches. The model is expected to hit the market in 2024.
Manufacturers rarely share sales projections for a specific model, which makes the forecast interesting for analysis purposes. In this case, we already knew that the company wants to have sold a total of 500,000 electric vehicles in the U.S. by 2030, so it’s clear the Prologue will be an important player for it. By 2040, the company wants 100 percent of its American sales to be all-electric models.
Recall that the Prologue is being developed jointly by Honda and General Motors (GM) and will use the Ultium platform developed by the American automaker. The two manufacturers are also developing an electric SUV for the Acura brand, as yet unnamed. GM will assemble both of them, and both are expected to be available starting in 2024.
Beyond these models built by GM, Honda will launch a series of electrified vehicles, this time based on the e-Architecture platform it has itself developed. This EV-specific architecture will underpin the models Honda is going to build in its North American plants.
Dave Gardner, executive vice president of national operations for Honda's U.S. division, said in a statement that the company will focus sales of the Prologue on the territories of California, as well as other states such as Texas and Florida. Of course, we can guess that the model will be sold in Canada as well, but for now, what we heard today concerns the United States.
He added that Honda plans to add hybrid electric systems to other models sold in North America.
“Our strategy is focused on introducing a higher percentage of hybrids in core models in the near term, making a committed effort to achieve higher volume leading to the introduction of our Honda Prologue.”
- Dave Gardner, executive vice president of national operations for Honda U.S.
