The Honda Prelude namesake is one which has been round for practically 50 years and 5 generations at this cut-off date. Regardless of the mannequin’s widespread acclaim and reward through the years, it’s a automobile that’s typically forged apart within the sea of sensible Japanese vehicles to come back out of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties. That is a bit ironic, because the Prelude was initially dreamed as much as give Honda consumers a much less forgettable and extra partaking different to the established however hyper-civilized choices of both the Civic or Accord.
The Prelude had a rocky begin when it was initially launched in boring kind for the 1978 mannequin yr. Nonetheless, as Prelude superior with the instances, it turned a critical competitor within the sports-coupe house, showcasing Honda’s most superior drivetrain applied sciences and taking the combat to BMW and Mazda in its fifth-generation. On the time, the legendary NSX was the one mannequin that might problem the Prelude within the Honda product line.
Following the discontinuation of the fifth-generation Prelude in 2001, the namesake was placed on hiatus, as a mix of waning shopper curiosity in sports activities coupes and the Prelude’s excessive price ticket led to its demise. Nonetheless, after twenty years, Honda revealed the brand new sixth-gen Prelude in the course of the Japanese Mobility Present in 2023. Initially launched as an idea, there was hypothesis on the time as as to whether or not the most recent entry within the Prelude saga would make it to manufacturing. Over the previous yr, extra particulars have come to gentle in regards to the idea, which Honda confirmed as a full-fledged manufacturing mannequin previous to this yr’s Goodwood Pageant of Pace. Whereas there is not a set worldwide manufacturing timeline but, Honda confirmed that the Prelude will debut in Europe as quickly as subsequent yr.
The brand new Prelude may have a hybrid powertrain
When the sixth-gen Prelude was unveiled in 2023, there was fairly a little bit of hypothesis surrounding the brand new mannequin’s powertrain. As with fairly a number of producers nowadays, Honda is dedicated to transitioning to a zero-emissions lineup within the coming many years, claiming to be emissions-free by the yr 2040. In consequence, it solely made sense that the corporate’s latest flagship mannequin would on the very least have some type of alternate powertrain. These suspicions had been confirmed a day earlier than the automobile was unveiled, with Andrew Quillin, a spokesperson for Honda, taking to X, previously often called Twitter, to make clear that the Prelude Idea is hybrid-electric however not a completely electrical automobile.
The affirmation of the Prelude’s hybrid powertrain surfaced extra questions on what that powerplant may be, as Honda nonetheless hasn’t launched any particular particulars. With that mentioned, we do have some benchmarks to go off of primarily based on Honda’s present hybrid lineup. Honda simply started rolling out the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid, which contains a 200-horsepower inline-four-cylinder hybrid engine.
With speculations that the brand new Prelude will share the identical modular platform that Honda makes use of for each the Civic and Accord, there’s a robust chance that the Prelude will use that exact same powertrain. Curiously, the Sport trim of the brand new Civic Hybrid would not characteristic a transmission in any respect, as a substitute counting on a generator tied to the interior combustion powertrain to energy a further electrical drive motor which sends energy to the wheels. Along with being a really environment friendly association, the acceleration supplied by an electrical drive motor might considerably enhance efficiency, a trait that Honda has claimed is a key focus of the brand new Prelude.
It should (hopefully) stick with its sport-coupe routes
Throughout the Prelude’s whole five-generation run, it has all the time remained a performance-oriented coupe. Primarily based on the press images and feedback made by Honda themselves, it seems that the sixth-Gen Prelude will keep largely true to its lineage. The styling itself is in step with earlier generations of the nameplate, that includes a low-slung physique and a single pair of doorways. Its rounded physique form and strip-style rear tail gentle are harking back to the third and fourth-generationPreludes respectively with a Twenty first-century aptitude, bringing the mannequin according to fashionable styling.
Honda has been considerably contradictory of their statements in regards to the outright efficiency of the brand new Prelude. On the time of the Prelude Idea’s preliminary unveiling in 2023, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe was quoted saying, “This mannequin will turn into the prelude for our future fashions which is able to inherit the ‘pleasure of driving’ into the full-fledged electrified future and embody Honda’s unalterable sports activities mindset.” Regardless of the initially promising remarks in regards to the sport-oriented intentions behind the Prelude’s improvement, that sentiment was walked again a bit by Honda Chief Engineer Tomoyuki Yamagami who defined that the Prelude “is not going to be the sportiest, zippiest automobile that is going to be tossed into the circuits” in an interview by CarsGuide in 2023. The sixth-gen Honda Prelude is not set to look on the street for some time and hasn’t even been confirmed to come back to america but, that means that solely time will inform if the Prelude will stay as much as its earlier generations.