Video: Up Close With the 2024 Honda Prologue EV: Does Honda Have a Better Blazer EV?

Now if you squint really closely at this vehicle you might just see some hints of the Chevrolet Blazer EV that's also coming out because both the Blazer and the Prologue were developed side by side in a joint venture between Honda and General Motors. Now, what has Honda done to make their version of this vehicle a little bit more Honda-ey? Well, let me take you through the new 24 Prologue and I'll show you. (soft music) From a styling standpoint, there really isn't much in common with the Chevrolet Blazer EV. Honda had responsibility for its external styling at its studios in Torrance, California and I think they did an absolutely dynamite job. It looks considerably different from the Blazer EV. It's a much cleaner design. You don't have the same swoops and strikes and cut lines that you do on the blazer, and I think it's going to appeal to a larger audience as well. There's a couple of interesting design details. First, the wheels. These are 21 inch wheels on this top elite trim model. Those are the largest wheels ever fitted to a Honda badged vehicle. There are two other trims, the EX and the Touring and they'll get 19 inch wheels. The other interesting design detail for the new Honda Prologue comes on the back tailgate. It's this Honda script that's now going to be appearing on all of Honda's electric vehicles. They already have this on some of their global models like the Honda E City Car, but this is the first time that we've seen it in North America, but I don't think it's going to be the last. 24 Prologue has some pretty solid powertrain credentials too. It's going to share a powertrain with the Blazer EV, but not all of the Blazer EV's powertrains. The one that this one will come with is a choice of two, either a single motor front wheel drive system or a dual motor all-wheel drive system. It's going to make an all-wheel drive form 288 horsepower and 333 pounds feet of torque, which is pretty decent. We don't have the numbers for the front wheel drive only system yet. It's going to use an 85 kilowatt hour battery pack which Honda says should get this Prologue all-wheel drive to about 300 miles of range. They haven't given a specific number just yet. That's still coming. It also can charge at up to 155 kilowatts, so you should be able to get about 60 miles of range or so in right around 10 minutes on a DC fast charger as well. Once you step inside though, you do see a lot more similarities between the Honda and the Chevrolet than you do on the outside. All of these parts, all these controls, these are Chevrolet controls. You've seen them in a number of other Chevys. EVerything from the 11.3 inch touchscreen that you have here running this Google operating system, looks just like the Chevrolet, to this 11 inch digital display behind the steering wheel, also looks very much like a Chevrolet. This steering wheel, despite having a Honda badge, this is a Blazer steering wheel. And the same thing with these actual climate controls. It's great that you've got actual buttons, but these are Chevy buttons. Now, that's not a bad thing because a lot of the latest general motor stuff is really very high quality, and this all looks pretty fantastic. The actual design of the dash itself is very Honda. It's very horizontal. It looks very similar to things that you might find in the Accord or the Civic. It's not as crazy, wild and racy and Camaro like as the Blazer EV is and I think that's going to appeal to a lot of people. But what's really going to appeal, I think, to a lot of people is that Honda is still going to offer Apple CarPlay along with Android Auto in their multimedia system. That's something that Chevrolet is phasing out. So if you like the Blazer EV and you like the Honda Prologue but you absolutely have to have Apple CarPlay, you're going to have to go for the Honda, and I think that's going to give it quite a competitive advantage. It's frankly a deal breaker in my book. The interior layout should offer plenty of room for five passengers with 136.9 cubic feet of interior space and a larger front to rear seat distance than the comparably sized Honda Passport SUV. There's 25.2 cubic feet of space behind the second row of seats for cargo on the EX model or drop the fold flat seats for 57.7 cubic feet of total room. Again, that's only on the EX model. I have a feeling that the all wheel drive models might make less room on both the Touring and the Elite. That's kind of the unspoken idea in Honda's press release. And a hands-free power tailgate on that standard on both the Touring and the Elite models. Standard upholstery on the EX is cloth in either black and charcoal or charcoal and light gray with accented color stitching. Now, if you step up to the Touring, you're going to get the same colors done in leather seating surfaces. Plus you'll get a driver's seat position memory, leather wrapped steering wheel, auto dimming rear view mirror, and front and rear parkas assist. Now splurge for the top elite trim, and now you get black and charcoal, brown and black or charcoal and light gray perforated leather seats with ventilation, a heated steering wheel, a heads up display and more. The Touring and the Elite models also get a really nice 12 speaker Bose premium audio system. The order books are going to open up on the new Honda Prologue later this year, and Honda says deliveries are supposed to start in early 2024. Pricing is not yet known, but Honda does say that it's going to start around the high $40,000 mark before any federal or local tax incentives and it honestly should get some of those full federal tax incentives because if this thing is as similar to the Chevrolet Blazer EV as we think it is, while the Blazer EV does qualify for the full $7,500 federal tax credit, which means that hopefully the Prologue will too. If you'd like to learn more about the new 24 Honda Prologue or any of Honda's upcoming electric vehicles, make sure you stay tuned to cars.com.