The Japanese automaker told dealers that the 2026 model year will be the last for the Prologue SUV, as it shifts focus to hybrids
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Lance Woelfer, the vice president of automobile sales for American Honda Motor Co., said the company is not pulling the plug immediately, with transactions expected to run through early 2027 as remaining stock moves out the door. Honda will also offer used Prologues through its certified pre-owned vehicle program.
"Right now, the key for the marketplace is a balance of ICE and hybrid," Woelfer told Bloomberg.
The Prologue, which went on sale in 2024, was manufactured for Honda by General Motors $GM at a plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. Annual Prologue sales reached around 40,000 units — a fraction of the CR-V's volume, which outsold it by roughly tenfold, according to The Wall Street Journal. Prologue deliveries slid 40% in June, a contrast to Honda's broader performance — overall sales climbed 2.4% in the first half of the year, buoyed by hybrid versions of the CR-V, Accord, and Civic.
The Prologue's discontinuation follows Honda's decision earlier this year to cancel plans for three additional electric models that were to be built at a factory in Ohio. The decision to abandon those plans resulted in $10 billion in charges and pushed Honda to its first net loss since going public, recorded in 2025.
Honda is targeting a lineup of 15 new hybrid vehicles arriving by March 2030, with the initial entry set to launch next year. The company said most of those will be offered in North America, though it has not specified which models will receive hybrid versions.
Honda stock fell as much as 1.9% in early Tokyo trading on Friday.
Woelfer said Honda has not ruled out returning to the U.S. electric vehicle market. "It doesn't mean EVs aren't part of the future for us," he said. The company will continue selling EVs in other global markets.
Honda's retreat is part of a broader pullback from electric vehicles among major automakers. U.S. EV sales dropped 30% year-over-year in June, according to the Journal, citing Motor Intelligence data. The Trump administration last year scrapped the federal EV tax credit and dismantled the strict fuel-economy standards that had been steering the industry toward an increasingly electric future.
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