Production of the 2024 Honda Prologue EV has started at the GM Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico, with a worker at the facility posting two photos of a fresh-off-the-assembly-line Prologue on social media today.
The Honda Prologue crossover is finished in the North Shore Pearl exterior paint color. It is shown parked next to a gasoline-powered Chevy Equinox on the factory floor. Excited? Details below.
Prologue Production Is Starting At GM Ramos Arizpe Plant This Year
The Ramos Arizpe Assembly is a General Motors automobile factory in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, Mexico. It opened in 1981 and has manufactured Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn, and Saab vehicles. Currently, it produces the Chevrolet Blazer and, along with the San Luis Potosi Assembly, the Chevrolet Equinox.
It is impossible to determine from the pictures whether the 2024 Honda Prologue shown is the first unit produced at Ramos Arizpe. It could also be a unit shown at random after serial production has started, or an early build of the crossover model. No other context is provided in the original social media post.
The Honda Prologue is Honda’s first all-electric crossover model and is being produced at Ramos Arizpe as a result of a strategic alliance with GM. It is powered and motivated by GM Ultium batteries and GM Ultium Drive motors while sharing its dimensions and many of its components with the Chevy Blazer EV.
Unlike GM vehicles, however, the Prologue and 2024 Acura ZDX will offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration, which The General is phasing out from its upcoming EVs.
According to Honda, the Prologue will be offered in three trim levels in the U.S., including EX, Touring, and Elite. The standard configuration will be a single-motor FWD variant, while a dual-motor AWD drivetrain is optional.
The single-charge range is expected to be approximately 300 miles once EPA estimates become available. The crossover will also have 21-inch wheels as an option, the biggest ever offered by the automaker.
Other features include an 11-inch digital instrument panel and an 11.3-inch infotainment touchscreen as standard, a more spacious interior than the Honda CR-V, and a suite of safety technologies. Additional options will include self-sealing tires and a Sport mode.
The GM Ramos Arizpe plant where the Honda Prologue is, or soon will be, in production also manufactures two ICE vehicles – the Chevy Equinox and the Chevy Blazer – and two other electric vehicles – the Chevy Equinox EV and the Chevy Blazer EV.
While ICE vehicle production continues at the moment, GM plans to switch Ramos Arizpe over to exclusively producing EVs sometime this year.
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Prologue Production Scheduled in 2024
It’s not quite ready yet, but a pre-production version of Honda’s first all-electric SUV made an appearance at the company’s Canadian head office in Richmond Hill this week before deliveries are scheduled to begin next spring.
The Prologue is a mid-sized SUV, bigger than the Honda CR-V and slightly longer than the Honda Passport. Its wheelbase is almost 10 percent greater than the Passport’s, allowing more space in the cabin for passengers and luggage.
It’s powered by an 85-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that can recharge at up to 155 kilowatts, which Honda says should supply an optimal range of more than 450 kilometers.
GM recently reviewed the possibility of exclusively producing electric vehicles at the GM Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico by 2024, according to a tweet by the Mexican government’s economy ministry following a meeting with the Detroit-based automaker.
Currently, the GM Ramos Arizpe plant manufactures the ICE-powered Chevy Blazer and Chevy Equinox crossovers, while the Equinox is also built at the GM San Luis Potosí plant in Mexico.
Thus far, the Chevy Blazer EV and Chevy Equinox EV are the only electric vehicles confirmed to be produced at this manufacturing plant, with the possibility of the upcoming Ultium-based Honda Prologue crossover. Eventually, GM plans the Ramos Arizpe plant to export EVs to more than 45 countries around the globe.
This development comes as GM Mexico head Francisco Garza expects Mexico to miss its EV targets. Currently, the Mexican government has a goal to have 30 percent of all production be related to electric vehicles by 2030, while Garza thinks the number will be closer to 15 percent.
It’s worth noting that these percentages refer to electric-powered vehicles as a whole, not just GM EVs. GM Authority previously reported back in July 2020 that General Motors was considering retooling the Mexican-based assembly plant for EV production.
Then, a little less than a year later, GM halted production at the manufacturing complex in order to expand production lines. Since then, The General has invested more than $1 billion to facilitate the construction of equipment that can handle GM’s Ultium vehicle architecture.
This significant investment will transform the Ramos Arizpe plant into the fifth GM North America manufacturing site to produce electric vehicles, joining the likes of the EV plants in Spring Hill, Tennessee, Factory Zero in Detroit-Hamtramck and Lake Orion, both in Michigan, as well as CAMI in Ingersoll, Ontario.
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