Honda Comes From Nowhere & Scores Large EV Gross sales In USA

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I’ve coated the US EV gross sales outcomes of a number of auto firms this month as third quarter gross sales information have come out. A number of firms have seen hovering EV gross sales progress, whereas others have seen massive drops in EV gross sales. And, even inside firms, some fashions are up loads whereas others are down loads. Nonetheless, there was one firm that stunned 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 gross sales grew 12% within 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, however it was nonetheless the very 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 kind of contemporary in the marketplace. Simply 19 items had been delivered within the first quarter, then 1,516 had been delivered within the second quarter, after which — increase — 12,644 deliveries! That’s a quick soar from nowhere by way of 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 automobile for a decade. It sullied its title amongst many EV followers and followers. Nonetheless, apparently, its for much longer status as a pacesetter in gas effectivity and hybrids made it a simple promote to get clients into its first critical full electrical car. And I do know there are additionally these sorts of consumers who particularly waited for his or her favourite model (and Honda is that for many individuals) to get into the EV sport. Possibly what this end result exhibits is simply how robust the Honda model continues to be with much less gas-guzzling-minded consumers. (That stated, given the dimensions of Honda, we should always hope for continued quick progress of EV gross sales and a a lot increased proportion of its gross sales coming from EVs.)

However there’s another reason this excessive gross sales end result surprises me a bit. Our personal Kyle Discipline drove and reviewed the Honda Prologue earlier this 12 months. In March, Kyle wrote, “The Prologue EV is constructed on high of GM’s Ultium platform and makes use of a ton of GM’s battery and powertrain elements, to the purpose that it appears like a GM car with a Honda shell on high. Honda opted to to companion with GM on the Prologue EV to speed up the time to marketplace for its first production-scale electrical car. This additionally provides Honda the flexibility to study from Common Motors’ expertise to see what features of the electrical car expertise resonate with Honda as a model and Honda’s clients on the identical time.” In different phrases, actually, the Prologue just isn’t a Honda at its core and is nothing particular. You might as effectively purchase a Chevy Equinox — however it seems about 3,000 extra individuals 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 a protracted listing of people that jumped on the Prologue as soon as it was obtainable to them and gross sales will fall off sooner or later. (I don’t actually suppose that’s the case, and hope it’s not, however it’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 making an attempt laborious to get gross sales of the Prologue flowing and needs to rapidly develop into an EV chief within the nation.

Maybe Honda simply is aware of find out how to bundle a automobile 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 assume 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 advocate to somebody seeking to get into an electrical automobile for the primary time. There are a number of others I’d advocate forward of it. However perhaps I ought to put the Prologue increased up the listing. After already changing into the fifth greatest promoting electrical automobile within the nation, there’s a stable likelihood it rises to 4th and even third within the subsequent quarter. We’ll see. Both manner, although, it’s more likely to stay within the high 10. We’ll see the place it goes from right here.