There are a things that stand out with the 2024 Honda Prologue AWD Elite EV. The most important is its overall impressive quality as Honda’s first major introduction to the electric vehicle market.
The six-seat Honda Prologue AWD Elite EV is a mid-size crossover SUV built on a chassis originally developed by General Motors, but it looks and seems much larger than a typical crossover.
The AWD Elite trim model, which we drove, provides every bell and whistle that Honda offers, from a heads-up display that keeps your eyes on the road, and an easily set-up Apple Car Play, to replace Honda’s Google-based system. Having the familiarity of your own phone on the good-size monitor helps a lot.
There is the driver’s seat with a 10-way power adjustment and power lumbar support. The passenger seat also has its own six-way manual adjustment. Both front seats have their own heating systems as well.
The oversized moonroof is also a useful and fun addition, either as a nighttime overhead window, or a sunny convertible top.
Like most electric SUVs now, the Prologue features a wide stance that while comfortable and luxurious, can be cumbersome in parking lots. Having driven three similar-sized vehicles in the last couple of months, this seems to be a trend.
But out on the open highway, the ride is assuring and powerful and smooth, with quick and responsive acceleration with adaptive cruise control, and a host of safety braking measures that we fortunately never had to test.
Along with the braking assists, there are the ubiquitous lane change alerts, as well as a blind zone steering assist, when you might find yourself accidentally veering just a little.
Also like the other vehicles, the Prologue has a backup camera parking assist feature that helps one maneuver, along with a passenger side review mirror that dips as you move into to reverse, to check your distance to the curb.
According to Honda, the Prologue has a range of 296 miles and can charge 65 miles in only 10 minutes with a DC Fast Charger. We never had to challenge that assessment in a week of highway and city driving.
But there was this one incident:
Easing our way around a FedEx truck parked on the No Parking side of a narrow street, we bumped up against the curb, apparently hard enough to damage the sidewall, which we didn’t realize until we were about a mile away. We assessed the damage in a mall parking lot quickly realized that not only does the Prologue not come with a spare, but ours was also missing a repair kit and air compressor pump.
Because of the damage, it would not have mattered, but it was nowhere to be found.
What the Prologue features is a run-flat tire designed to allow you to drive under 50 miles an hour, a few miles to your home or a repair shop. Otherwise, you’ll be calling the Auto Club.
In our case, the test car providers handled the situation and returned the car the next day with a new tire.
We ended up walking home about a mile on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, realizing the situation could have been much worse.
The Honda Prologue still provided us a luxurious, powerful and comfortable ride up until the flat, and for a few days afterward.
This is a quality effort by Honda, one that has already been praised in a number of quarters, and, starting at $47,000 for the EX trim level, is a vehicle definitely worth looking into as an impressive family ride.
