Honda resurrected a beloved name from company history today at the Japan Mobility Show (formerly the Tokyo Motor Show). The Prelude is back.
Well, maybe. Officially, it’s just a one-off concept car. There’s no guarantee you’ll ever see it in dealerships.
But we think you will. For one thing, Honda has a long history of showing concept cars that become production models. For another, this lacks the impractical flourishes that identify a car meant to stay a design study forever.
And they wouldn’t tease us with the Prelude name for no reason, would they?
In case you don’t remember, Prelude was the name given to a line of Honda sports cars from 1978 through 2001. Originally derived from the Accord platform, the Prelude evolved into a long, low-slung two-door with sharp handling and Honda reliability that had legions of fans on several continents.
Honda has kept the name in reserve for an entire generation now. As far as we know, it’s never appeared on a concept that didn’t see production.
The Electric Prelude
Now, for the details …
If we had any, we’d share them. Honda President Toshihiro Mibe introduced the Prelude Concept, saying, “This model will become the prelude for our future models, which will inherit the ‘joy of driving’ into the full-fledged electrified future and embody Honda’s unalterable sports mindset. The Prelude Concept is a specialty sports model that will offer [an] exhilarating experience that makes you want to keep going forever and extraordinary excitement you never felt before.”
It doesn’t give you much to go on, does it?
We know the Prelude Concept is electric.
We know, from looking at it, that it leans into the forward-swept lines of a Civic Coupe or Acura Integra more than the reared-back stance of the last Prelude.
That’s all anyone outside Honda gets to know — for now.
Honda has one electric vehicle (EV) destined for showrooms soon. Called the Prologue, it’s as much a General Motors product as it is a Honda. Through a partnership agreement, Honda builds it using the Ultium EV platform — the same mechanical parts in the Cadillac Lyriq, Chevy Silverado EV, and other GM EVs.
But, the company signed the GM agreement, which the two parties announced today is ending, to give it an EV to sell while it worked on building its own EV platform from scratch.
This sports coupe would make an excellent prelude to its own EV. It could become the first of a new wave of EVs built from the ground up as Hondas. That would be big news and worthy of a legendary name.
