Ultium-Based Honda Prologue Sales Expected To Reach 70,000 Units At Launch
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Honda has announced that it is targeting initial annual sales of 70,000 units for the up-and-coming Honda Prologue SUV, the Japanese automaker’s first volume battery-electric vehicle. The new Honda Prologue will be co-developed with General Motors and will be based on GM’s Ultium electric vehicle technology.
Back in April of 2020, General Motors and Honda announced a partnership to jointly develop new Honda all-electric vehicles using GM’s Ultium batteries, as well as GM’s BEV3 global EV platform. The use of the BEV3 platform and Ultium battery tech will enable Honda to scale production of the upcoming Honda Prologue SUV, and thus reach the goal of selling 70,000 annually units at launch.
The new Honda Prologue is expected to launch in 2024. The Japanese automaker is also developing its own e-Architecture, which will underpin further Honda electric vehicles in the future. Honda states that it intends to reach 500,000 all-electric sales by 2030, with 40 percent of all Hondas sold being zero-emission vehicles by that time. Furthermore, Honda says it will push for 80 percent of all Honda sales being zero-emission vehicles by 2035, reaching 100 percent by 2040.
“Launching our first volume BEV in 2024 is the start of an exciting new direction for Honda,” said executive vice president of National Operations at American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Dave Gardner. “We are working with our dealers to plan the transition from sales of primarily gasoline-powered vehicles to selling 100-percent electric vehicles by 2040.”
Prior to the introduction of Honda’s new e-Architecture, the new GM-based Honda Prologue will be built at General Motors’ North American production facilities. Afterwards, Honda’s upcoming e-Architecture-based vehicles will be produced at Honda’s plants in North America, set to launch in the second half of the decade.
Meanwhile, General Motors will offer several GM-branded vehicles on the BEV3 platform, with Ultium battery technology providing the motivation. This includes the upcoming Cadillac Lyriq luxury crossover, the Cruise Origin robotaxi, and several as -of-yet unnamed Chevy and Buick vehicles.
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70,000 units sold at launch is very ambitious. I don’t see that happening unless the base model is selling for no more than $35,000 (ideally it should be 28-30k but I don’t see that happening with first gen Ultium).
Based on what happened with the Cadillac Lyriq, Hummer EV, and Ford F150 Lightning, Honda will have no trouble selling 70,000 EVs. Honda owners are very happy and very loyal. Those that have any hesitancy about an EV will be comforted by a Honda EV (and will most likely not even know it is based on GM architecture.) It will have a Honda badge, and that will please them.
It will be interesting to see if the haters of american car companies who claim to only buy none american branded cars buys in! Time will tell. Then next gen kids who claim this to me all the time. I laughed when I saw this. Welcome to american manufaturing geners…haha.
How is 70,000 units ambitious?
Automakers can produce 70K annually of a specific Model without even breaking a sweat.
Selling 70,000 EVs is very different from 70,000 gas powered vehicles. Today’s EVs are more expensive, rely on different ‘refueling’ infrastructure, suffer from range limitations, and have different repair/maintenance schedules (e.g battery replacements). For that reason, EVs are only ~2% of the US auto market, half of which is solely in California.
Automakers are selling BEV’s in China and Europe with ease.
Honda will not have any issues selling a messily 70K vehicles unless the vehicle sucks.
Mololos
In Europeans have been pushing Plug-in hybrids. In China its mostly low EV range golf cart type vehicles like Wuling’s Hong guang mini.
Honda’s Prolegue will be primarily for North America.
Yes China sells a ton of cheap and low range EV’s but they also sell a ton of great EV’s.
Tesla Model 3 is selling like Hotcakes in Europe and China. Model Y will as well once it ramps up.
VW is selling ID.3’s in droves. There are just better choices for EV’s in Europe and China.
Besides Teslas and recently the Mustang Mach-E which EV would someone even consider in the States?
Once these new upcoming EV’s start rolling out you will see how consumers gravitate towards them quite quickly as has European and Chinese customers.
Momolos
I think we’re both on the same page. Just using slightly different definitions.
“Unless the vehicle sucks” is exactly the point. Based on limited data, it appears only 4 EVs surpassed the coveted 70k sales worldwide in 2020. Two from Tesla, one Wuling, and the very affordable Renault Zoe. It’s not a guarantee that the vehicle will reach this target, although I hope it does.
In the 1st half of the year 3.3% of vehicle sales in the U.S. fully electric EVs. With the new EV pickups, crossovers like the Bolt EUV, Nissan Ayira and Vans like the Brightdrop600 all hitting the market. My guess is EV market share will be about 10% by the end of next year.
10% right put the crack pipe down Peter that stuff is bad for you.
How many trucks and vans do you think Coca-Cola owns? That’s just 1 company looking to quickly go green. Now add in Amazon, UPS, FedEx, Pepsi, Frito-lay, Budweiser, Miller/Coors,. and the U.S. will blow by that 10% number faster than a 55 mph speed limit sign.
Corporate America will definitely transition to green, but how many sales do they account for? I’d like to know but I don’t.
None. Coca-Cola and Pepsi trucks you see on the street are owned by bottlers: independent franchises. Beverage companies are also transportation companies. Their number one cost is fuel. Trucking the sugar water costs more than the sugar water itself.
Amazon, UPS, etc. want EVs because their start-1000 feet-stop drive cycle is incompatible with diesel emissions aftertreatment regeneration, and inefficient gas trucks are costing them a bundle. They’re also going to be in for trouble if/when aftertreatment comes over to gas. The economics is different for Pepsi and others who use diesel trucks today.
I dont think you know what the word green means.
I actually like hearing that they’re planning for that much battery capacity at launch. That suggests GM will have fairly significant production capacity for batteries by 2024.
It will be needed to meet demand for BrightDrop products, Hummer EVs, Lyriq production plus other Cadillac models that are coming. Silverado EV production. There are lots of models to come and hopefully battery capacity is t the limiting factor.
@GMC Fan
I agree.
Some still just do not understand how quickly BEV’s will grow within the next 10 years.
I’m not sure anyone can really comprehend the demand for EVs right now. I do think it’s far greater than most realize. Unfortunately I think production capacity will limit the numbers of EVs that can be produced annually. Regardless, the changes in EV tech over the coming 5 years is going to be extraordinary. I look forward to purchasing one in 5+ years after tech improves and greater mileage is available per charge.
@GMC Fan
I obviously could be 100% wrong but I feel the only thing that will or can drastically slow down the EV Adoption in this Country is if our Charging Infrastructure doesn’t keep up with the vehicle demand.
I cannot fault someone living in say rural areas not switching to a BEV’s if they do not have plentiful Charging options.
Tech will keep getting better and better and charging times will keep decreasing as well. Eventually it’ll be just as fast as Pumping Gas.
the only thing propping ev sales are tax incentives. take that away and the ev market would be absolutely dead.
maybe one day ev/ice’s will be on par costwise but we’re not there today.
Tesla gets no tax credit and is still the number one selling EV in the US. GM doesn’t get the tax credit anymore either, and, until the battery recall fiasco the Bolt EV and EUV were not far behind.
at the state level, don’t they still get tax breaks? in other parts of the world, they still get plenty of tax breaks.
and being the number one ev manufacuturer is impressive until you look at the numbers.
Steve, Tesla doesn’t really get much of any tax breaks at this point. The state tax breaks that do exist in 5-10 states aren’t generally more than $2,500 which isn’t going to swing a purchase of a $50,000 vehicle from gas to EV.
My electric company gave me a $50.00 credit if they can take control of my smart home thermostat on extreme heat days raise the setpoint 4 degrees in Arizona to lighten load on the grid. If they are all ready having issues what are they going to do when everybody starts charging their ev’s and running their home air conditioners I see problems down the road.
Good question Joe. First, in order to get the best price, demand shifting which is what you’re describing will become more common. So will charging during off peak hours or when power is cheapest (the day or super late at night in AZ) when there is excess power on the grid that needs to be consumed. Right now, the US wastes a lot of power, particularly with coal/nuclear which are base load power sources that can’t scale up to meet peak demand.
Eventually we will go to more and more solar and renewable combined with grid energy storage to get us through the night. Power companies will likely heavily incentivize charging when power is most readily available. Because cars will have more and more range and may only need to charge once a week this may make charging even cheaper than it is today.