New in 2024, Honda managed to increase both driving range and power to the 2025 Honda Prologue. Front wheel drive models will travel 308 miles per charge.
Brand new in 2024—in fact I reviewed it for ARS Technica just over one year ago—Honda already updated its first battery-electric vehicle, the Prologue. Honda sells the midsize, two-row, crossover SUV in either front- or all-wheel-drive. And now a new, more powerful and efficient motor rests under the front axle. It leads to a number of improvements.
NEW FRONT POWER UNIT
More specifically, the 2025 Prologue receives an “upgraded front power unit.” That likely means the front-electric motor itself remains the same. But I bet engineers found gains in the software, or perhaps firmware, that controls it. Regardless, the end result delivers an additional eight horsepower and seven lb.-ft of peak output and an additional 12 miles of range.
The base EX and midlevel Touring trims equipped with front-wheel-drive, will now travel 308 miles on a single charge, according to the EPA. And you’ll have 220 horsepower and 243 lb.-ft of torque to play as you deplete the 85-kWh lithium-ion battery-pack, which is unchanged from last year.
ALL WHEELS GO
While Honda stated no changes made to the rear power unit, all-wheel-drive versions of Prologue still see gains courtesy of the front-end updates. Indeed, bigger gains. Peak power rises from 288 horsepower to a nice and clean 300 HP. And Peak torque spins up to 355 lb.-ft, up from 333 lb.-ft. Both of them welcome.
In my test drive of the Prologue Elite last year, performance felt perfectly reasonable, but far from the sharp responses that many of today’s EV provide, including the new, similarly sized Polestar 3. To be fair, the Polestar 3 starts at just under $70k. Regardless the added horsepower and torque will certainly help motivate Honda’s roughly 5200 lb. AWD crossover around.
Range increases here as well. All-wheel-drive EX and Touring models will carry you 294 miles between charges. The better equipped and heavier Prologue Elite—not to mention the 21-inch wheels—will lonely last 283 miles. Still, those numbers are improvements of 13 miles and 10 miles, respectively.
PRICE HOLDS STEADY
Despite the changes, Honda kept prices alone for the Prologue. The base, front-wheel-drive EX trim still starts at $47,400, adding all-wheel-drive still costs $3000 dollars. Touring and Elite trims follow suit, no change in price. Except for one thing. Last year the destination charge was $1395 dollars, now its $1450. Effectively, price increased by $55 across the board.
And Honda says all Prologue models qualify for the full $7500 federal tax credit, which drops the base price to $41,350 for the front-wheel-drive EX, when you include the destination charge. For more detail, I have a price breakdown below.
CONCLUSION
Continuous improvements in range and power in the battery electric vehicle world illustrates how young this technology is in so many ways. Learning is rapid, and engineers find efficiencies to better handle temperature, load, etc. that result in real tangible gains in vehicle performance. That means, just one year after launch, we get a power and range upgrade. Sweet!
Otherwise, it’s still the same Prologue of last year. You get a healthy list of standard equipment: 19-in wheels, Google built-in, Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless smartphone charger, power seats with lumbar adjust, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, and more. That’s in addition to an 11.0-in digital instrument cluster, and a highly adjustable, 11.3-in center display. In fact, I put together a whole video on that very topic, it’s below.
As BEVs improve, they get more enticing. And the rate is impressive, look no further than what Ford is doing with its 2025 Mustang Mach-E. And, c’mon, more power!? It’s time for another test drive to see how it feels.
PRICE BREAKDOWN
| Trim | Drive | Pricing | |
| MSRP (incl Dest) | After Federal ($7500) Credit | ||
| EX | FWD | $48,850 | $41,350 |
| EX | AWD | $51,850 | $43,350 |
| Touring | FWD | $53,150 | $45,650 |
| Touring | AWD | $56,150 | $48,650 |
| Elite | AWD | $59,350 | $51,850 |
