Honda Comes From Nowhere & Scores Big EV Sales In USA

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I’ve lined the US EV gross sales outcomes of a number of auto firms this month as third quarter gross sales knowledge have come out. A number of firms have seen hovering EV gross sales progress, whereas others have seen large drops in EV gross sales. And, even inside firms, some fashions are up quite a bit whereas others are down quite a bit. Nonetheless, there was one firm that shocked me a bit however I didn’t know what to make of it, so I held off a bit earlier than writing about it. That firm, after all, is Honda.

Ford EV sales grew 12% in the third quarter (Q3)particularly backed by Ford F-150 Lightning gross sales rising 105%, to 7,162 gross sales. The Ford Mustang Mach-E noticed a slight decline in gross sales, but it surely was nonetheless the best promoting non-Tesla EV within the nation, with 13,392 gross sales within the third quarter. However right here’s the wild information: the Honda Prologue got here out of nowhere to nearly take that title from the Mustang Mach-E. The Honda Prologue scored 12,644 gross sales within the third quarter.

A part of what surprises me is that the Prologue is sort of recent available on the market. Simply 19 items have been delivered within the first quarter, then 1,516 have been delivered within the second quarter, after which — growth — 12,644 deliveries! That’s a quick leap from nowhere via meh to wow!

One other factor that surprises me about it’s that Honda has been seen as an enormous EV laggard for a number of years. It prevented creating an electrical automotive for a decade. It sullied its title amongst many EV followers and followers. Nonetheless, apparently, its for much longer fame as a frontrunner in gasoline effectivity and hybrids made it a simple promote to get clients into its first critical full electrical automobile. And I do know there are additionally these sorts of patrons who particularly waited for his or her favourite model (and Honda is that for many individuals) to get into the EV recreation. Possibly what this end result exhibits is simply how robust the Honda model remains to be with much less gas-guzzling-minded patrons. (That mentioned, given the scale of Honda, we must always hope for continued quick progress of EV gross sales and a a lot greater proportion of its gross sales coming from EVs.)

However there’s another reason this excessive gross sales end result surprises me a bit. Our own Kyle Field drove and reviewed the Honda Prologue earlier this year. In March, Kyle wrote, “The Prologue EV is built on top of GM’s Ultium platform and utilizes a ton of GM’s battery and powertrain components, to the point that it feels like a GM vehicle with a Honda shell on top. Honda opted to to partner with GM on the Prologue EV to accelerate the time to market for its first production-scale electric vehicle. This also gives Honda the ability to learn from General Motors’ technology to see what aspects of the electric vehicle experience resonate with Honda as a brand and Honda’s customers at the same time.” In different phrases, actually, the Prologue isn’t a Honda at its core and is nothing particular. It’s possible you’ll as effectively purchase a Chevy Equinox — but it surely seems about 3,000 extra folks purchased a Honda Prologue than a Chevy Equinox!

There are a pair extra issues as effectively. For one, maybe Honda simply had sufficient demand constructed up for an EV that it had an extended listing of people that jumped on the Prologue as soon as it was out there to them and gross sales will fall off sooner or later. (I don’t actually assume that’s the case, and hope it’s not, but it surely’s one risk.) One other factor is that I’ve heard Honda’s pushing some nice offers on the Prologue, and I’ve seen many advertisements for it myself. Maybe Honda is genuinely attempting exhausting to get gross sales of the Prologue flowing and needs to shortly turn into an EV chief within the nation.

Maybe Honda simply is aware of learn how to package deal a automotive at a aggressive value and promote it to clients. Possibly Honda’s simply higher at promoting automobiles, and that features the considerably mediocre Prologue. I suppose I haven’t actually hidden my opinion on the Prologue, however I’ll be trustworthy, it’s simply not one of many high EVs I’d suggest to somebody seeking to get into an electrical automotive for the primary time. There are a number of others I’d suggest forward of it. However perhaps I ought to put the Prologue greater up the listing. After already turning into the fifth finest promoting electrical automotive within the nation, there’s a stable probability it rises to 4th and even third within the subsequent quarter. We’ll see. Both means, although, it’s prone to stay within the high 10. We’ll see the place it goes from right here.