Honda will sell the Prelude sports coupe in the U.S. beginning in 2025. It will be a return for the model, which was last sold in 2001, and serve as a replacement of sorts for the Honda Civic coupe, which was dropped in 2020 as the company introduce the new generation of Civic in sedan and hatchback body styles.
The new, sixth-generation Prelude is a hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV). It is the third hybrid car Honda will sell, behind the larger Accord and Civic. The Honda Civic hybrid went on sale in 2024 and the company expects it to make up a 40 percent market share of Civic sales. Over 50 percent of all Accord sales this year are of hybrid variants.
"The return of the Honda Prelude as a hybrid-electric sports model demonstrates our continued commitment to offer a variety of exhilarating products to meet the needs of our customers," said Jessika Laudermilk, assistant vice president of Honda Auto Sales, in a press release. "The first three products in the Honda lineup in the 1970s were Civic, Accord and Prelude, and soon all three will be back together again in our passenger car lineup as hybrids."
The Prelude was originally sold as a sports car and a new drive mode, S+ Shift, is designed to tie the new model to its roots. That mode "advances Linear Shift Control" delivering "maximum levels of driver engagement."
"Not long after we saw Acura revive the Integra, another retro nameplate is making a comeback for the Honda brand. The Prelude was really a pinnacle execution of Honda engineering and the brand's focus on attainable performance back in its heyday, so this new model is likely going to drum up a lot of excitement amongst Millennial and Gen X vehicle shoppers," Robby DeGraff, manager of product and consumer insights at AutoPacific, told Newsweek.
Prelude is part of Honda's larger electrification strategy. The company has the goal of achieving carbon neutrality for all its products and corporate activities by 2050.
By 2040, Honda intends to have battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles make up 100 percent of its sales. Ahead of that, the company is leaning into hybrid technology and has begun sales of its first battery-electric vehicle, the Prologue sport utility vehicle (SUV).
Late next year, Honda will begin production of a new electric vehicles based on a fresh Honda-developed platform, at its EV Hub in Ohio.
A future model is expected to take nods from a concept vehicles shown at CES in January, Honda 0 Series Saloon. It will be introduced in 2026. Seven Honda 0 models are expected to be produced and sold globally by 2030.
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