While Ford, VW, Nissan EVs are decidedly sized against their compact SUVs counterparts (Escape, Tiguan & Rogue, respectively), Honda’s upcoming Prologue will be notably larger than the CR-V and in some dimensions will be even larger than the Passport.  NOT height though, more on that later.

Long, low, wide and stretched wheelbase

Let’s start with the basics: the 2024 Honda Prologue is Honda’s re-entry into the EV forte, after a few half-start efforts like the Fit EV or the Clarity EV. This may be Honda’s most meaningful alternative energy vehicle, despite the fact that it is based on GM’s Ultium platform, sharing the platform thusly the long, low and wide stature of the upcoming Blazer EV. While it’s not a ground up Honda, it certainly isn’t the first time Honda has accelerated the push into a new SUV category by seeking a little help from its friends: the original Isuzu-based Passport and Acura SLX come to mind.

Clean and simple, yet also quite fresh and elegant

But like its competitors EV SUVs, it drops into an already robust SUV line-up and ends up overlapping existing internal combustion engine products. In this case, the Passport which unlike the CR-V or Pilot, is not getting an impending redesign. Granted it was introduced for the 2019 model year and just received a refresh for 2022, but it is more or less a shorter wheelbase Pilot, which will be all-new and was last redesigned for 2016.

The exterior dimensions look very Blazer EV, but the interior feels quite Honda

It may be tempting, then, to view the Prologue as a replacement for the Passport, but that’s unlikely to be the case.  EVs are naturally on-road machines and the Passport, especially in TrailSport guise is envisioned to be an off-road type vehicle, even if that’s not how most of its owners use it.  Meaning, don’t expect a Prologue TrailSport.  View the Prologue as a more luxury or even performance oriented SUV, which makes sense since it will also begat an Acura version to be known as the ZDX Type S. The Prologue’s distinctly different purpose from that of the Passport, which at most may get a hybrid variant in the next generation (but probably not PHEV like the Pilot might get), helps account for why it lands fairly close to the Passport in price and length but doesn’t necessarily pose any issues sitting alongside it in the showroom (figuratively speaking, as these days it’s hard to imagine any Honda SUV sitting in showroom unless it has a massive mark up).

Speaking of, let’s dive into the dimensions:

So while the Prologue is a few inches longer than the Passport (which is likely to gain some length in it’s future redesign) and about the same width, it is considerably shorter, in fact it is even shorter than the CR-V. Hence the long, low, wide. Another thing, the long long wheelbase. The GM Ultium platform vehicles have very stretched out wheelbases which is not uncommon amongst other EVs (notably the Kia EV6 has a longer wheelbase than the 3-row Telluride).

While new and different from any existing Honda, it somehow still manages to look familiar ‘Honda-esque’, a good thing

Further comparisons for the Prologue will be forthcoming as details arrive on the Prologue, including price and performance.