In 2025, the Honda Prelude Hybrid will arrive in the United States.
Honda says driving with S+ Shift will be more enjoyable with the hybrid coupe. Additionally, Americans will not be left behind.
- Like the Civic, Accord, and CR-V, the Honda Prelude will be a hybrid coupe with two motors.
- This news coincides with the 25th anniversary of Honda’s Insight, the company’s first hybrid vehicle.
- At first, it was uncertain if the Prelude would be going to the United States, but Honda has since confirmed that it will.
At InsideEVs, we don’t always discuss non-plug-in hybrids, but when we do, it’s typically for a valid cause. One of those “good reasons” was the Honda Prelude Concept. Honda shocked everyone with a barely disguised hybrid coupe concept last year at the Toyko Auto Salon (and again at the LA Auto Show) while sporting a well-known moniker.
Just in time for Christmas, Honda shocks us once more this year. By the end of next year, Honda’s fast coupe will undoubtedly return, including to the American market. Glory be.
However, the Prelude will be more than a hybrid coupe based on the Civic. According to Honda, the “S+ Shift” function in this vehicle will signal the beginning of performance-focused sport hybrid technology. Honda claims that it will “advance Linear Shift Control to deliver maximum levels of driver engagement, in keeping with the heritage of the Prelude line,” however we don’t know many specifics.
It sounds like a production version of Honda’s virtual shifting program, which I witnessed in Tokyo this past fall, based on the description. Although it was used on a Honda E prototype, Honda was transparent about its intentions to apply this gamified technology to other cars in its lineup.
The Prelude will employ the same two-motor gas-electric hybrid technology as other Honda hybrids. A conventional automatic or manual transmission isn’t feasible with this design. However, a real PHEV isn’t entirely out of the question because of the two-motor system’s great adaptability in using its massive electric motors instead of a gearbox. A PHEV version of the CR-V Hybrid is offered in numerous European markets. In China, the Accord Hybrid is also a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Is a Prelude PHEV just a short leap away? Perhaps.
In any case, Honda is launching the Prelude at a historic moment. Honda is commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Insight, their first hybrid vehicle. Additionally, it acknowledged that the Prelude played a crucial role in Honda’s first 1970s debut.
According to Jessika Laudermilk, assistant vice president of Honda Auto Sales, “The Civic, Accord, and Prelude were the first three products in the Honda lineup in the 1970s, and all three will soon be back together in our passenger car lineup as hybrids.”
Although Honda continues to refer to the Prelude as a concept, it has released some new pictures of the coupe decked out in a festive crimson. When it goes on sale the following year, the production model should resemble this one quite a bit.