Honda Sidles Up To Nissan, Promises New Prelude Hybrid Next Year – CleanTechnica

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Readers always ask whether legacy automakers are going to survive the transition to electric cars. There are plenty of reasons why people should be concerned. Stellantis is struggling in Europe and in the US, and Nissan has been issuing warnings about its profitability for several months. Volkswagen Group is feuding with its labor unions over the possible closure of three factories in Germany. Lots of questions have been raised about the viability of Honda, which seems to have no clear path forward. It entered into a partnership arrangement with General Motors to build its new battery electric Prologue SUV and new Acura electric models on the GM Ultium platform. But almost as soon as  production began, it backed away from that arrangement and said it would build its new electric cars at existing factories in the US. Prologue sales are booming, but it seems unlikely any future Honda-badged electric cars will rely on the Ultium platform.

According to CNBC, Nikkei, a major Japanese financial newspaper, reported on December 17, 2024, that Nissan and Honda reportedly plan to enter into negotiations for a merger to better compete in the rapidly changing global automotive industry. They are said to be considering operating under a holding company and will sign a memorandum of understanding soon. They are also considering adding Mitsubishi to the new financial structure. Nissan is the largest shareholder in Mitsubishi, with 24 percent of the stock.

The combined Nissan-Honda-Mitsubishi enterprise would make the triumvirate one of the largest automotive companies in the world, with annual sales of around 8 million vehicles. Toyota has annual sales of 11.2 million vehicles while Volkswagen Group reported sales of 9.2 million vehicles last year. In similar statements, Honda and Nissan neither confirmed nor denied the report. “The reported content was not released by our company,” Honda said. “As announced in March of this year, Honda and Nissan are exploring various possibilities for future collaboration, leveraging each other’s strengths. We will inform our stakeholders of any updates at an appropriate time.”

The merger report follows reports earlier this year about the two Japanese automakers entering into a strategic partnership to share automotive components and software. Such a tie-up would be the largest automotive industry merger since Fiat Chrysler joined with France-based PSA Groupe to form Stellantis in January 2021. Automotive consultants and other experts have recently been calling for an increase in mergers and acquisitions to share costs and better compete against rapidly expanding Chinese automakers as well as Tesla.

Honda Prelude Hybrid Coming Next Year

In a press release, Honda said this week it will introduce a new Prelude sports coupe late in 2025. The announcement is significant for two reasons. First, the new car — this is the sixth iteration of the Prelude since it was introduced in 1978 — expands the Honda range of passenger cars sold in the US beyond the entry level Civic, the mid-level Accord, and the CR-V. There were five generations of the Prelude before it went out of production in 2001, and it was the first Honda model to feature four-wheel steering and torque vectoring. Part of the reason Honda stopped building the Prelude was the demand for 2-door coupes in America had shrunk considerably over the years as minivans and sedans took over the marketplace. Once every manufacturer offered a sports coupe in its lineup, but today 2-door cars are scarcer than snowflakes on the Fourth of July.

The other reason the news this week is important is that the new Prelude will be a hybrid that uses the two electric motor system used for other hybrid models in the Honda lineup. Readers might assume that means an electric motor at the front and the rear of the car, but that is not the case. According to The Verge, both motors are adjacent to the internal combustion engine. “One electric motor acts as a generator, creating electricity for the battery and propulsion,” Honda spokesperson Chris Naughton said, “and the other is a traction motor that propels the vehicle and captures regen when slowing.”

Like Toyota, Honda is focusing on hybrid powertrains as a pathway to selling exclusively battery electric vehicles by 2040. Hybrid powertrains now account for almost half of all Accord and CR-V sales. A hybrid version of the Civic has been introduced and the company expects it will account for half of Civic sales in the near future. “The return of the Honda Prelude as a hybrid-electric sports model demonstrates our continued commitment to offer a variety of exhilarating products to meet the needs of our customers,” said Jessika Laudermilk, assistant vice president of Honda Auto Sales. “The first three products in the Honda lineup in the 1970s were Civic, Accord and Prelude, and soon all three will be back together again in our passenger car lineup as hybrids.”

Introducing Honda S+ Shift

In a separate press release, Honda extols the virtues of its new S+ Shift technology. “The stylish new Prelude will mark the debut of Honda S+ Shift, an innovative new drive mode that further advances Linear Shift Control to deliver maximum levels of driver engagement, in keeping with the heritage of the Prelude line. The newly developed Honda S+ Shift is a new function designed to pursue the ‘joy of driving’ that further accentuates the sense of oneness between the driver and the vehicle, while fully leveraging the characteristics of the e:HEV system.

“Without compromising high environmental performance unique to HEV models, the Honda S+ Shift precisely controls the engine RPM during acceleration and deceleration to realize direct drive response and sharp gear shifting. Moreover, the powerful engine sound synchronizes with the Active Sound Control system, enhancing engine sound quality by offering the engine sound in sync with engine RPM through the speaker system and the highly responsive meter display. In this way the Honda S+ Shift will stimulate all of the driver’s senses and provide exhilarating driving at the will of the driver, further synchronizing the driver and the vehicle.” In other words, it is to driving what Wii is to playing actual sports.

Honda lists the key features of Honda S+ Shift as follows:

• By linking two high-power motors with the ASC system, the Honda S+ Shift achieves dynamic engine RPM changes and a sharp upshift feeling, providing feedback that resonates with all of the driver’s senses, amplifying the sense of oneness between the driver and the vehicle.
• The Honda S+ Shift further advances the Linear Shift Control applied to current e:HEV models, enabling gear shifts (upshift and downshift) according to the driving conditions and environments at all speed ranges. While turning, the Honda S+ Shift system quickly responds to driver steering input and activates shift hold, enabling the vehicle to trace the desired driving line at the will of the driver.
• By maintaining the optimal engine RPM for the particular driving conditions, the power generated by the engine during re-acceleration will be fully utilized as driving force. This greatly improves the initial response time of the motor when the driver depresses the accelerator pedal and enables overwhelmingly high response that is directly connected to driver input.
• Although e:HEV does not have a mechanical transmission mechanism, when the Honda S+ Shift is activated, the driver can shift gears with a paddle shifter, so that the driver can enjoy driving feel as if the vehicle features a transmission system. With quick gearshift responses achieved through the coordination of the engine and high-power motor, Honda S+ Shift function will strive to offer the joy of driving based on direct response to driver input.

To the team of crack journalists at CleanTechnica, S+ Shift sounds like imitation cheese food rather than actual cheese or using Wii instead of playing a real sport. Color us skeptical about whether this is a true advance in automotive technology or an answer to a question no one is asking.

The Takeaway

We don’t mean to be unkind, but we hope this next-generation Prelude is better than the CR-Z from some years ago, which offered a hybrid powertrain with an actual 5-speed transmission. The car featured swoopy styling but did not have the performance to match. The CR-Z barely had enough power to pull the skin off custard and went out or production almost as soon as it was introduced. Honda has also had a less than stellar relationship with hybrid technology in the past. The original Civic Hybrid actually got worse fuel economy than its non-hybrid cousins and suffered from numerous reliability issues. Supposedly an answer to the Toyota Prius, it was quickly withdrawn from the Honda lineup. The promising Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid suffered a similar fate — although, readers who own one report they are happy with their cars.

Honda has stumbled several times on its way to the electric car future. The Honda e was a brilliant engineering exercise but wildly overpriced. The company has just introduced the Prologue battery electric SUV and it is enjoying strong sales in the US, currently only trailing three Teslas and the Ford Mustang Mach-E. That leads us to ponder, if Honda is capable of making a competitive electric car, why jump into the wayback machine to bring us another hybrid and why do it with a body style that almost no one is asking for? Sometimes it seems Honda is lurching from pillar to post on its way to the EV revolution. If it knows how to build compelling electric cars, why not just get on with it?