Honda wished to get into the EV recreation shortly, so it turned to an odd companion – Normal Motors. The Prologue EV is the primary fruit of this partnership, using on GM’s Ultium battery platform. On paper, it seems to be a twin of Chevrolet’s new Blazer EV, using on the identical 121.8-inch wheelbase and sharing an 85.0-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. However this isn’t merely a badge-engineering job.
“Mainly, the body rails, the ground, the entrance and rear suspension subframes, these are widespread clearly,” says John Hwang, chief engineer for the Prologue. “GM once we began shared these arduous factors the place the sheetmetal has to connect, after which they stated, ‘Go for it.’”
Hwang provides that the pedal field, steering column mounting, the bottom of the windshield, and firewall are additionally shared between Blazer and Prologue.
“When these are widespread, it opens up lots of flexibility and effectivity, but it surely nonetheless provides sufficient freedom for the designers,” he says.
So, the physique panels are completely different, and whereas the Prologue has an analogous low, huge stance because the Blazer, it doesn’t look equivalent. Merely associated.
One key distinction is tuning.
“We had conferences with Normal Motors and stated, ‘Our vehicles really feel like this, we need to have this sort of an expression,’” Hwang tells us. “So, we introduced some Honda vehicles and another vehicles and benchmarked them and drove them collectively. And based mostly on that we stated, ‘Let’s deal with these areas to tune.’”
The Prologue makes use of distinctive springs and dampers, and Hwang says the steering calibration is sort of a bit completely different than the Blazer’s. With out driving them back-to-back, it’s robust to inform the precise distinction, however I’m informed the Prologue has a softer suspension setup and the steering is an effective bit lighter too.
Contained in the Prologue, issues are completely different, too. Whereas the Blazer inside has a sporty look, the Prologue’s cabin is extra subdued, in typical Honda type. Switchgear comes from GM’s huge components bin, however Hwang says Honda designers and engineers got here up with a singular feel and look for the Prologue’s inside. The button and swap places are distinctive too, performed to Honda’s design requirements. Honda additionally eschews the massive, curved infotainment show of the Blazer in favor of a smaller touchscreen.
It’s an excellent instance of how vehicles can share a lot beneath however feel and look fairly completely different. The Prologue seems like a Honda, regardless of its GM roots.
