Since the advent of EVs (electric vehicles) I’ve been thinking I need to get into this world. There is no doubt that the future of personal vehicle and public transportation is zero emissions. Of course in this political climate (no pun intended) the oil industry still rules and controls narrative with pure greed and nothing but evil greed. They control the climate narrative with politicians both locally and nationally. This has led to auto company’s dragging their feet and pushing high profit margin vehicles that are public and climate danger. General Motors did attempt a future with the release of the EV1 in 1996. It was short lived, but it did show that there is a future in this and ability to mass produce an EV for the masses.
Tesla came along a short 4 years after the GM attempt and quickly made a noise. The founders, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning were able to pull off massive disruption products with the roadster and then the Model S. I’m not even going to dive into the rest of the story, but it’s important to recognize the contributions to what early Tesla accomplished in a rather short time, it disrupted the transportation industry and showed that EVs are the future. A build it and they will come in its truest form. Tesla has been a force and still a disruptor by making purchasing easier with a direct to consumer model (Saturn tried this too), servicing your vehicle where you are and then charging at their Superchargers. Besides the charging network when I worked at General Motors I was involved in a “young people” panel about how to get the younger people to buy a GM product. The direct sale and servicing were two of the biggest things raised because the purchasing at a dealership experience is gross overall and then trying to adjust your world to the servicing of the vehicle is an extreme pain. I’m not saying Tesla is awesome, but they certainly set the bar high with how this should all function.
Now with this all said we’ve seen US politics dip their fit ever so slightly with tax credits for clunkers for cash to help move Americans to more fuel efficient vehicles. It worked to a degree, but what it has created is a complete dependence on fossil fuels and more ICE vehicles on the roads even if they are more fuel efficient it does not cut back on emissions and in fact made it worse. With the popularity of Tesla traditional manufacturers started dipping their toes into the EV market such as the Nissan Leaf. Eventually new tax credits for purchasing EVs were passed by the Feds and it has started to make a dent. Tesla took off and Nissan has had mild success. Other manufacturers built forgettable compliance vehicles and the public could see right through them.
With the pandemic in 2020 we all witnessed a world where cars were not being driven and the air quality improved. This is the future we could have with EVs (and more use of public transportation). With the election of Joe Biden he passed major legislation that has been the largest climate and infrastructure bills ever in this nation’s history. While there is much to be desired about the charging networks it is all coming together and the future is bright on that front. The tax credits to purchase a new EV (and used too!) have been a boon making entry to EVs more affordable to many. Unfortunately the traditional automakers, with the exception of Hyundai and Kia, have been lackluster on their approach. VW is still only selling one EV in the US and has promised the retro-futuristic ID.Buzz for a decade now. It’s supposed to be on sale in December, but it’s very expensive and technology is based on a 5 year old platform. Ford has the Mustang Mach-E that has been well received and their Lightning F-150 truck, but again they have not done many improvements nor produced any other models in the US. GM’s Chevrolet had a hit on their hands with the Bolt, but then they killed it to focus on higher margin vehicles (shareholder pressure). GM’s Ultium EV platform did not start off very well. The Blazer EV had a stop sale immediately at launch. Drivers got stuck with bricked vehicles. It was looking like a disaster, but it has since rebounded and starting to talk off moderately. Then GM announces that all of their EVs will no longer support the ever popular Apple CarPlay/Android Auto phone projection technology. I will not go into this boneheaded decision and I think it’ holding back sales of the Ultium platform as a whole.
I’ve been a Honda driver for many years now. In 2017, I jumped into a Honda Civic hatchback and absolutely love the weird, sleek look. I soon realized how low it is to the ground and how cramped it is for a six foot tall driver which then gave way at the end of 2019 to the flagship Honda sedan, the Accord. A few months later the pandemic hit and obviously was not driving anywhere. I changed jobs at the beginning of the pandemic and eventually the office policy became mostly remote 99% of the time. This meant my car was sitting for long stretches of time and with gas sitting there. If you recall during the pandemic new cars became non-existent with inventories depleted which created a massive used car market. The Honda dealer reached out to me to ask about my Accord knowing that I had very little miles on it. I mean it had just about 12,000 miles in the two and half years of leasing it! My wife suggested we take advantage of this. We contemplated going down to one car and just keep the money in savings, but with uncertainty and how used car prices skyrocketed we decided to maintain a two car household, but to just get something cheaper at Honda. The dealership desperately wanted the car and it was also when Honda was about to transition to the new CR-V. They had many of the outgoing model and were trying to move them all. I eventually drove away in a 2022 CR-V Touring that had everything. Kids called it Kirby. I like the CR-V, but the non-hybrid models are not very fuel efficient in city driving which is the majority of my driving.
A few months later Honda announced their partnership with GM and a joint venture of the Prologue. Honda had been lukewarm to EVs in general up to that point and were pushing hybrids more. The Prologue was to be based on the Blazer EV on the Ultium platform. GM had many missteps with the Blazer EV as pointed out earlier, but with Honda involved it would only be good start of things. Honda has a history of partnering with others to build a vehicle in which they did not have participant in a segment such as the original Passport SUV. The Passport was nothing more than an Isuzu Rodeo which created many SUVs the market was gangbusters for. Then what Honda does next is build their in-house product learning from their essentially badge engineered market entry. Passport was a hit. The Odyssey was another one of those hits. Honda is patient and then pounce. That’s what this felt like to me with the Prologue. It still has the potential to not be dominant and to stumble, but as of this moment the Prologue is selling well.
One thing that I think the Prologue has going for it besides it just having a Honda badge on it is that unlike GM’s decision to forgo CarPlay/Android Auto Honda very much welcomed it to their platform. All cars now have wireless CarPlay/Android Auto standard or available on certain trims. When the Prologue was announced it proudly touted the decision. The design of the Prologue was dissed for being boring and sedated when previewed. In the lead up to the launch I don’t think anyone took Honda as a serious contender. I know I didn’t think much of it at first. Then the launch happened. It continued to get okay reviews. Many stated that while it looks like a Honda on the outside they panned the interior’s GM parts bin. Honda created their own suspension instead of the direct Blazer EV way which has led to many stating it drives better than the Blazer EV. I like Honda’s approach to many of the details like the door handles. Just put regular handles on things instead of something that can ice over, break easier or not function well without any power. Honda fans have been waiting for an EV and I think it’s a great start to the EV endeavor.
November 5 I think changed many things for people. Again, another story for another day. Soon after the election was called the mango buffoon has stated many insane things including his new BFF’s claim that the EV tax credit will go away. I didn’t really think much about it until I started seeing people talk on social media about all of the incentives on EVs right now including Honda. I looked at my favorite dealer and saw they had 7 Prologues on the lot and so I went to just test drive one. They wanted to “pull ahead” on my CR-V lease and I just said I couldn’t make the numbers work. Just about a week later the sales rep calls me up and says you got time to come in? I set up a time and at this point they gave me a number and I was floored. I said I had to talk to my wife first. They then let me drive it home so she could see it. The kids loved it immediately so they were an easy sell. The wife, not so much. She did not like the idea of a first model year because obviously. Eventually she basically said “whatever, it’s your car and I’m not driving it.” I went in the next morning and they gave an even better number because I had asked a couple of things that my wife asked about. So for only $55 more a month than what I was paying I came home with a loaded (Touring) EV in an awesome color. Hello to Kirk! As in Captain Kirk of the starship USS Enterprise of Star Trek fame. When I started out the kids wondered about the noise and said it sounded like something from Star Trek. I couldn’t think of a more fitting name for my 2024 Honda Prologue EV.
I didn’t plan getting an EV until my CR-V lease ended and I had my eye on the Hyundai Ioniq5 and the soon to be announced Kia EV3, but this was deal I could not pass up. When you drive mainly city and less than 10,000 miles a year driving a fossil fueled vehicle is just dumb and sounds gross now frankly. We’ll see what happens in the coming years, but EVs are here to stay and the market is rapidly developing battery and energy technologies.
I plan on doing updates on my journey about charging and hopefully to singing the praises of Kirk. One thing is for certain, Kirk is not going to be asking more power in this thing.
P.S. This color is called Solar Gray Pearl.
