The Honda Prelude is back, at least in concept car form. Shown at this year’s Japan Mobility Show, the two-door sports car is an electrified return of the nameplate that was stuck on front-engined, front-wheel drive sports cars for several decades until it was retired in 2001.
Update 4:05 p.m. EST: A Honda spokesperson clarified on X that the new Prelude is actually a hybrid, not a fully electric vehicle as we and other outlets widely reported. Honda offered no details about the car's powertrain during its initial release, with its CEO saying "This model will become the prelude for our future models which will inherit the 'joy of driving' into the full-fledged electrified future and embody Honda's unalterable sports mindset." Most of our original story follows below, save for that crucial detail.
The problem is, details about the new Prelude are so thin you’d need a pair of tweezers to take them out of the Tokyo car show bucket of reveals. One piece of information is already out on the table – the fact that it’s electrified.
The second drop of official info is that the Prelude Concept will bake in the “joy of driving” into future electrified Honda models. And that’s about it. No photos of the interior, no details about the powertrain. In fact, the concept’s reveal was right at the end of the Japanese automaker’s presentation, after electric aircraft, jets, micro-mobility solutions, and the partnership with GM’s Cruise autonomous taxi business.
Gallery: Honda Prelude Concept
However, we have eyes, and the white two-door, zero-emissions concept looks production-ready, seeing how it doesn’t have any over-the-top features like external displays, crazy headlights, or anything like that.
Usually, concept cars that are bound to collect dust in a warehouse after being shown to the world have triple-hinged doors, retracting steering wheels, and floor-mounted displays, but the Prelude has none of those – that we know of, at least.
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“The Prelude Concept is a specialty sports model that will offer an exhilarating experience that makes you want to keep going forever and extraordinary excitement you never felt before,” said Honda President, Toshihiro Mibe. “In order to offer the ‘joy of driving’ only Honda can realize, we are diligently progressing with development, so please keep your expectations high for this model,” he added.
We can dream, can’t we?